The Malfoy Family Tapestry

Prologue - How It's Going...

Draco Malfoy let himself into the house. Of course he did, it was his house, or would be one day. For now though, he resided in a very posh flat on the Gringotts end of Diagon Alley... the posh end.

" Father?" His voice echoed around the museum sized Entrance Hall of the infamous Malfoy Manor. "Mother?"

He clasped the small hand of his paramour and bought her further into the cavernous room, looking expectantly towards the closed doors of his mothers favourite sitting room and then towards his fathers study. Both doors remained resolutely closed. There was neither an ecstatic cry from his mother (who did so every time he visited, followed by a flurry of dress silks and a smothering hug) nor a formal but warm hail from his father (firm handshake, pat on shoulder).

He waited.... and waited some more. He was not particularly patient,

"Where are they?" He muttered to himself as he stalked forwards, dragging his nervous girlfriend behind him "Where can they be?"

Both of his parents were still under house arrest after the end of the war, five months past. They could be nowhere else but home.

He huffed irritably.

"Nibby!" He snapped imperiously.

He shouldn't have to resort to calling on a house elf in his own home... to find his parents, who were expecting their beloved, only son and heir and his perspective mate, whom they were purportedly excited to make the acquaintance of.

At least someone was on the ball today, he thought, as Nibby - in his crisp white pillowcase, Sanctimonia Vincet Semper elegantly embroidered in pure silver thread in one corner - popped into being at the bottom of the grand staircase and bowed low to the Malfoy scion.

"Master Draco." The old elf wheezed with his long, knobby nose pressed to the elegant floor.

"Where are my parents?" Draco asked petulantly, adjusting his grip on his ladys hand. "We're to have afternoon tea..." He tugged on his silver fob chain and palmed his pocket watch, showing the wide-eyed elf its face, which proclaimed in a piping little voice "Five minutes ago! Late!, Disgraceful insult!"

His lady giggled as Draco tucked the complaining watch back into his waistcoat pocket, still chirping away. Dracos pocket watch was so dramatic.

Nibby began to shake, his little jowls jiggling.

"Master and Mistress are in the family gallery, Master Draco. They are..."

Nibby cringed as a loud screech reverberated around the entire manor.

"...If you think for one moment that I will stand for..."

The words became indistinct from there but it was most definitely the regal Lady Malfoys voice, and in a tone and register that Draco had never heard before.

Draco looked down at Nibby with wide eyes.

"They are having a disagreement, Master Draco." Nibby murmured, shifting from side to side uncomfortably.

'A disagreement?' Draco thought in confused shock (hearing a tinkling crash from overhead... a vase?) 'His parents didn't care enough about each other to disagree...'

"The Mistress..." Nibby shifted uncomfortably again, "The Mistress has discovered something... unsatisfactory, and has been expressing her displeasure for some time."

There was another crash and accompanying harpy screech. Draco let go of his girlfriends hand and made for the stairs. He had to put a stop to this before his mother destroyed his entire inheritance.

"I'll be right back, Gin." He called over his shoulder. "Stay here, out of the firing line."

He took the stairs two at a time (very crass) to the second floor and bolted along the wide portrait gallery, where all of the elaborate portrait frames were conspicuously empty. His parents voices became more distinct the further he traversed. Lucius Malfoy: quiet and controlled, and quite calm. And Narcissa Malfoy: Not quiet, not controlled and very, very not calm. The closer he got, the portrait subjects from further down the gallery crammed into frames closer to the entertainment.

They seemed to be wrapping up their 'disagreement' by the time that Draco slid to stop by the grand display which was the Malfoy Family Tapestry as the lady of the house spun on her heel and all but flew passed Draco, not even sparing him a glance. Draco inwardly cringed as he knew what was coming because Lucius Malfoy always... ALWAYS... had to get the last word in.... any second...

"Maybe Azkaban allows conjugal visits... I shall make enquiries for you." Lucius drawled at his wifes retreating back.

There was the sound of fine porcelain hitting the floor (probably thousands of years old and completely priceless), followed by the slamming of a heavy oak door. Draco's mouth dropped open.

What? What was going on?

Lucius Malfoy had turned towards the vast silken tapestry and ran his fingertips over the fine silver threads for a moment.

"I do apologise, Draco." Lucius spoke softly, distracted by the track of his finger on the wall. "It seems that we must reschedule our tea."

At least he was being acknowledged by one of his parents, even if somewhat half-heartedly.

His father turned slowly and faced his heir, though his mind was obviously elsewhere.

"I have just discovered that I have a prior appointment." He excused himself absently with a distracted nod, walking passed his son and striding the hall. He swished his wand a few times as he went, sending shattered objet d’art back to their places, fully restored.

Draco stood immobile, trying to process what had just happened.

It can't have been his mothers on-going affair with Rodolphus Lestrange: that was old, old news and had been going on since they were at school together. It was no secret that they had been a love match denied when Andromeda Black had backed out of the Malfoy engagement in favour of a muggle, causing Narcissa to take her place and Bellatrix to be married into the Lestrange line (The Malfoys had rejected Bellatrix as the elder sister... she was much too unstable for the Malfoy constitution).

It can't have been an indiscretion on his Fathers part. Lucius Malfoy had always been one hundred percent faithful to his wife, even though they were married only in name. Mistresses and lovers were too low brow for the Malfoys. New money did that sort of thing. Gentlemen had control of their baser instincts and philandering was indeed base... and anyway, bastards were not looked upon favorably in the best social circles...

So, what could it possibly have been about?

Draco glanced up at the vast tapestry as he pondered.

It was a beautiful work of magical art.

Where the Black Tapestry was ugly and knotted with black roses and crooked thorns, and the Nott one was a boring Tree of Life monstrosity, and the Prewitt one was a whimsical and frankly childish looking mass of daisies and Jasmine vines... The Weasleys was probably weeds and dirt, if they had one at all... unfortunate, considering the young lady currently waiting downstairs.

Where all of the others were lacking, the Malfoy Tapestry was, as it was with all things, the finest, the most elegant and the most sublime. The whitest of snow white gardenias, strung together with fine threads of pure silver and bursting with lush greenery. Each face in perfect detail, captured at the subjects most perfect age and at their most beautiful and each labelled with pure golden flourishes.

Draco looked up at his own embroidered face; 'Draco Lucius Malfoy' captured inside of a gardenia bloom and smiled at the tentative little slither of a vine, hoping to reach outwards from the side, not quite formed but knowing that soon he would be wed, to continue the noble Malfoy line... The Tapestry was very thorough like that, knowing when to....

Wait a minute... Wait, One Gods-Damned Minute!

What the Fuck was that?

Dracos focus fixed on his fathers image or more specifically, on the vine and forming flowerbud that extended below his fathers image... and next to Draco... and NOT his mother. In fact, there was a distinct severing between Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy. In fact... Was that another thread? Almost invisible? Extending from his father and towards the faint outline of another bloom? Who the FUCK was that? What was going on?

"Master Draco?" Nibby, the house elf popped to his side, causing Draco to jump in surprise. "your guest has..."

Ginevra Weasley suddenly rushed into the family gallery, her fiery hair blazing behind her, distracting the Malfoy ancestors as they made their meandering ways back to their respective frames. Obviously ignoring Dracos instruction to stay put in the entrance hall and evading his staff as they sought to contain her.

"Draco," She exclaimed and she halted in front of him, a little out of breath (it was a big house) and holding the stitch in her side. "Why does your dad need to know where Hermione is?"