The Governors Meeting
By the time Severus and Andromeda had made their way back into the study, Lucius had explained to Draco their plan of where they would be housing Hadrian during the school terms. Needless to say, Draco was very pleased with the plan. He was very excited to still have his little brother with him throughout the school year however he was less pleased that he would now be having both his parents with him, it was bad enough when it was just his dad. But at least he would get to see his Papa a bit more often.
But as it was incredibly late at night they chose to all go to bed and speak about it in the morning, with Andromeda choosing to stay in one of the guest rooms so she wasn’t waking her husband and daughter up. She did send them a note through the floo to let them know where she was so they didn’t worry.
It was about three o’clock in the morning when Lucius was awaken by a shuffling sound around the entrance to his and his husbands bedroom door. Rolling over and turning on the light beside him he turned to face the dark silver eyes that were sparkling back at him.
“Hadrian?” He whispered groggily. Hadrian didn’t reply, just held his hands up in a universal way that children did to be picked up. Lucius did so, placing him on the bed between him and his daddy, who was somehow still asleep. “Nightmare?”
He felt his son nod into his chest where he had snuggled up before they both succumbed to sleep only a few moments later. Needless to say Severus wasn’t surprised at the weight across him the next morning when he woke up. He looked at the clock on the wall beside him and saw that it was nearing the time that they were going to call a meeting with the Governors.
Severus looked down to admire his son before gently moving his position so he was sat in his lap and therefore it would be easier to wake him up. He ignored the wet patch that had appeared on his pyjamas knowing what a difficult time his son had gone through and probably would continue to go through for a while.
“Hadrian” he spoke softly into his sons ear. Hadrian shifted slightly in his arms. “Hadrian, baby, it’s time to get up.” This got a bigger reaction with Hadrian fisting the sleep out of his eyes before blinking sleepily up at his Daddy. “Lets get you washed shall we?”
Hadrian blushed when he felt the wetness on his pants but soon forgot to be embarrassed when his daddy didn’t shout at him for it. Severus simply spelled the stain away and took him into their ensuite bathroom before running him a nice warm bath and washing him down. As Severus walked out of the bathroom with his little boy in his arms wrapped in a fluffy towel with a hood, Lucius couldn’t help but coo over the sight his husband and son made.
He handed Severus a tiger onesie, one of the only muggle things they owned, and at Severus’ inquiring gaze he simply replied with “He isn’t going to be moving from our arms all day so he may as well be comfortable.” Severus and Hadrian agreed, the latter with a lot more enthusiasm. He wasn’t normally allowed out in his onesie so he would definitely not pass on this opportunity to wear it.
The trio walked downstairs towards the fireplace where they luckily met a half asleep Draco and Andromeda. Before they set off Severus glanced at the Quibbler that had arrived earlier that morning and was glad to see the news of Hadrian’s return was reported on the front page. It meant explaining him to the Governors would be a bit easier.
LOST MALFOY SON RETURNED!
Hadrian Severus Malfoy (Now Six) was kidnapped from Lestrange Manor on 8 July 1986. Lord Prince and Lord Malfoy, along with a group of Aurors, looked tirelessly for years with no results. However in June, Severus Prince-Malfoy was seen walking out of Gringotts with his son. No Family has commented yet but we at the Quibbler are respecting their privacy. They have offered to comment in the future, choosing to spend as much time with their son and keep what happened private to allow the Ministry to do their job. More on the Malfoy and Prince Families on pg. 6.
“Right, so what is suggest is: Severus, Draco and Hadrian wait outside and Lucius and I will talk first, then we will bring you in later if we need too. Is that okay with everyone?” Andromeda started, nodding in confirmation when everyone else did.
Everyone in the room was tense, but no more than Lucius and Severus.
“Ah Lord Malfoy! And Mrs Tonks!” Lady Zabini greeted, both Lucius and Andromeda nodded politely in return. “This is a bit of an unusual time to call a meeting is it not?” She was correct of course, after all it was nearly the start of the school term.
“You are absolutely correct Lady Zabini. I am aware we don’t normally hold these meetings at the end of the holiday but my husband and I are in a bit of a situation. See I’m not sure if you are aware but we recently found our youngest son whom if you remember was taken from us at only one years of age.”
“Congratulations for that Lord Malfoy! I read about it in the Quibbler this morning!” Lord Nott interrupted. Lucius nodded again politely to the man before continuing on.
“Yes, well as fantastic as it may seem, Hadrian has been having a very hard time settling in, understandable of course after the abuse he suffered at the hands of his kidnappers. We originally had planned that whilst both Draco and Severus were at Hogwarts that Hadrian would stay in the manor with Narcissa and then with me as well in the evening when I finished work. However throughout the course of the last month or so we have come to the conclusion that this will not work. Simply put, Hadrian just has not bonded with Narcissa the way the rest of us have. Hadrian will typically tend to scream whenever Severus or I left the room and would sometimes be inconsolable for quite some time.”
“He has a problem with women, I assume then?” Lady Diggory said concerned. She had worked in the past with abused children and knew that they could end up fearing one gender or even both and that was very hard to come back from.
“That was the thought originally,” Andromeda spoke before Lucius could, placing her hand on his arm as a silent apology for cutting in, “However he is perfectly content with me and he was okay around Lady Zabini as well I believe?” Lady Zabini nodded in confirmation. “We decided we would arrange this meeting to see if it was possible that you would agree to housing Hadrian with his Daddy at the castle, however since last night we have now got a new request.”
The governors all looked at the pair on them with a mixture of concern and intrigue in their eyes.
“Unfortunately last night there was an incident that brought the Aurors to Malfoy Manor. They were called by Severus and I. We had left Hadrian in the room with Narcissa and Andromeda but not even an hour later Andromeda brought Haddy down to Severus’ study because he had gone hysterical and cried himself to sleep. We spoke for about thirty minutes before Hadrian woke up, started crying again, scrambled out of Severus’ arms and ran off. We spent quite a while trying to find him before a scream echoed from the North Wing of the house. Unfortunately when we arrived, Narcissa was in the process of cursing our little boy, who was pleading for her to stop. He was covered in cuts and abrasions but she just didn’t seem to stop so we had to incapacitate her. We still do not know why Hadrian ran off because he hasn’t spoken a word since last night.”
Silence radiated round the room, with everyone in shock of what they had just heard.
“Why did she curse him?” Lady Zabini’s voice could be heard after about five minutes of silence.
“Apparently when he was hiding he accidentally tore some of the project she had been working on” Lucius replied sadly.
“I’m sorry, let me get this straight. Your wife - ” Lucius interrupted.
“We are filing for divorce.”
“Sorry, Narcissa cursed her six year old child, who is in recovery after being abused, because he ripped her project?” Lady Parkinson spoke with disbelief.
“Yes.”
Once again silence filled the room until it was broken by a knocking on the door. Upon admittance of his entry, Severus popped his head around the door.
“I’m really sorry for interrupting. Lucius, please can you take Hadrian? Draco hasn’t eaten yet so I thought I would take him out for food somewhere, but Haddy doesn’t want to leave you.” Lucius by this point had made his way over to his family and was happy to take their little boy, setting him on his hip, smiling slightly when Hadrian’s head immediately found his shoulder.
“Go have fun love.” Lucius whispered quietly, giving Severus and Draco a hug before making his way back to his seat.
“I apologise again for the disruption.” Lucius didn’t notice that everyone was too busy cooing over his son to even be bothered about the disruption.
“You said you had a different request Lord Malfoy?” Lord Parkinson interrupted everyone’s cooing.
“Ah yes, thank you for reminding me.” He shifted Hadrian on his lap before continuing. “I was hoping that I could be placed somewhere in the school so that I could be near my whole family. The way things are at the moment Hadrian wouldn’t be able to heal fully if his parents are in two separate places let alone his brother. I, personally, also don’t feel comfortable leaving him at home with elves whilst I am at work every day and would feel much safer if he was with me all the time, which as you all know just cannot happen at the ministry. I understand that as it is so late in the holiday that this may not be possible but I thought it best to ask.”
“Lucius, honestly. You’ve done so much for the school that I’m sure we can find some sort of position. I’m assuming you don’t want Dumbledore knowing until its announced too as he isn’t here and neither is Molly?” Lucius had the decency to look ashamed.
“No, you’re right. If he had the option, I just know that he would stop any chance I would have at getting a job. It does go deeper than that unfortunately but I am not allowed to inform anyone else yet until we have sorted some things out with the Goblins. I do apologise about that but hopefully I will have more information for you in the next few weeks.” Lucius replied. He trusted that none of them would relay this information to anyone, no one at this table respected Albus Dumbledore and the decisions he made and no one liked how far up his arse Molly Weasley was.
“I suppose you are lucky then that I will be the one informing him then aren’t you!” Lady Abbott teased. Everyone laughed, waking Hadrian up.
“Daddy?” He spoke groggily, not realising he had been passed to his papa.
“No sweetheart, its papa.” Lucius replied quietly. Hadrian pulled his head back from Lucius’ neck to look at his Papas face. It was quite an adorable sight to see, a tired face with his hair covered by a tiger hood with ears on it, with a few curly tendrils falling over his face.
“Papa,” Hadrian repeated before giggling and giving him a big hug. “Where’s Daddy.”
“Well your Daddy has taken your brother for some lunch and we are currently having a board meeting,” Lucius thought it was the best idea to tell Hadrian where they were so that he didn’t get scared when he turned around. He knew that it was what Hadrian would have asked anyway if he had been talking properly. It was in that moment that Hadrian finally turned to look around him, smiling shyly as he noticed everyone looking at him, before burying his head back into his Papa’s shoulder again. During this exchange Lucius hadn’t noticed that everyone had left them to speak alone without any stares, for which he was grateful for.
“I think you have a hungry boy on your hands there Lucius so we will end this meeting now and owl you with the position we have chosen for you. I believe we will tell Albus the morning of September first so he has no way of doing anything to stop it.” Lady Longbottom spoke up for the first time in the meeting. She rarely spoke in them but everyone was grateful she was on board, what with her son and his wife being part of the Order of the Phoenix in the last war. Anything would happen if you got Augusta Longbottom on the case. “Lucius do you mind If I walk with you to meet Severus? I have something to discuss with you.”
Lucius agreed and so the trio said their goodbyes and made their way towards Draco’s favourite café in Diagon Alley.