The Malfoys
Meanwhile
Lucius walked into the dining room and saw Narcissa already sitting there with a cup of coffee; he walked behind her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Good morning lovely, how was your night?”
Narcissa gave him a lovely smile and took a sip of her coffee.
“It was alright my dear. I’m just worried about Draco. He hasn’t written in a while and that isn’t like him.”
Lucius asked a house elf for a cup of coffee as well and looked over to Narcissa with a sigh. This has been a conversation they have had for the last couple of days.
“I’m sure that Draco is just fine. He probably found himself a significant other and is worried about telling us about them. You know he was writing a lot about a couple of people in his last couple letters.”
Narcissa gave a big sigh and just looked seriously at Lucius. She gave him a stare that made him shiver a little.
“As a mother we have certain feelings, and my feelings are telling me that something happened to Draco and that we should be following up with him.”
It was at this moment that the owls showed up and dropped off the mail, including the Daily Prophet, in front of Lucius. He took a sip of his coffee and looked at the news and immediately spit his coffee all over the dining table.
“Lucius! What in the world is the matter with you?”
Not able to answer himself he passed the newspaper over to her and she just gasped.
“I told you! I told you there was something wrong! We have to go to Hogwarts and check on Draco right away!”
They both got up ready to drop into Hogwarts and get some answers but suddenly Lucius’ mark burned him and he stopped Narcissa from flooing over. He gave her a signal and she nodded, sighed, and went back to reread the paper and see what she can get from that itself. Lucius took some floo powder and called out his destination.
“Marlborrow Way”
Arriving at the mansion that Voldemort was using as a hideout Lucius hurried to Voldemort’s meeting room. He bypassed a couple of other Deatheaters that are hiding out in the mansion while they are still being searched for by law. He entered the meeting room and kneeled in front of Voldemort waiting to be told he can get up.
“Rise Lucius and tell me what is going on with your son and Severus and Harry Potter. The news was not something I was expecting to read as I haven’t heard from you or Severus about this situation.”
Lucius got up and nodded his head, keeping his head down so as not to stare at Voldemort’s face. Voldemort looked closer to how he looked in his diary than how he was at his rising. Pettigrew screwed up the potion and Voldemort had to pay for it, but luckily he has a great potioneer on hand and Severus was able to give him a potion to fix him right up.
“My Lord, Narcissa and I were both just as surprised as you when reading the news this morning. We were just about to go to Hogwarts and demand answers when you called for me. I thought not hearing from Draco just meant he was busy and wasn’t thinking of his parents, I never would have guessed that something had happened to him as we were not notified by Hogwarts at all.”
“I see. Well, get going to Hogwarts and get some information and once you have that come straight here to tell me what is going on and how this situation can be to our advantage.”
Lucius nodded his head and told him he would and slowly left the room to go back to the floo and get back home. He thought this went much better than he was expecting but he was still worried with what this could mean for Draco.
Arriving back at Malfoy manor he saw that Narcissa was cleaning his mess with the coffee, he could tell she was just keeping busy as to not go to Hogwarts without him.
“Narcissa, we can go now. He just wanted to know what was going on and wants me to inform him of everything when we find out whatever it is we are going to find out.”
Narcissa sighed, happy that the dark lord has more patience than he used to and no longer uses the cruciatus curse left and right. She passed the rag she was cleaning with to a house elf and followed Lucius to the floo.
“Are you sure you want to come with me. We don’t know what Dumbledore or Severus or even Draco will have to tell us.”
“You will not be able to keep me away from my son Lucius, don’t even try.”
They both grabbed some floo powder and called over to Hogwarts. It was time they get some answers.
They arrived in the headmaster’s office, noticing that Dumbledore was at his desk just working on some paperwork, he looked like he had no worries in his world. Lucius was determined to change that as he knew that Dumbledore was the reason he had no idea what was going on with his son.
“Lucius, Narcissa, how pleasant to see you. May I ask why you are here? I don’t believe we had a meeting set up at this time did we?”
Dumbledore greeted them as if he knew nothing about why they were there in his office, this just frustrated Lucius and made Narcissa wonder about the headmaster’s mind.
“I’m sure you saw the news this morning Dumbledore. We are here to find out why we had no idea our son was injured or in the hospital wing. Shouldn’t parents be informed any time their child ends up needing the hospital wing? And what is this bonding situation that is happening? Why did we have to find out about all of this when reading the paper? Shouldn’t we have been told ahead of time? What do you have to say for yourself Dumbledore?”
Lucius was angry and was not impressed with everything going on. He knew, being on the school council, that all parents should be notified if their child was injured enough to need the hospital wing, even if it’s something small, it’s just a matter of liability. Dumbledore on the other hand just sighed and put down his paperwork as if this was a big hassle for him to deal with parents.
“My dear Lucius, we have not had time to contact you as of yet. The news in the paper was unfortunately caused by gossip and was not intended to be announced any time soon. Your son has been cleared from the hospital wing very quickly and we didn’t think that such a small matter needed your concern. Besides, we expected young mister Malfoy to contact his parents with the happenings of his current situation.”
Narcissa was just staring at the headmaster as if he was insane.
“Do not dare blame Draco for not contacting us! He was in the hospital wing and then had to deal with this new bonding situation and had a lot to handle, you on the other hand should have contacted us the minute Draco was hospitalized, not after finding out what was going on, but beforehand so that we may have been there for our son when he got the news!”
Narcissa was not happy with Dumbledore. Dumbledore flinched a little and sighed trying to make this come out for the better for him even if it meant making things harder on Severus and Harry.
“Unfortunately Mr. Potter was the more serious case and was being treated more urgently than young Malfoy. Normally it is the head of house that contacts the parents but Severus was busy making the potions and investigating the outcome of the incident. There really was no time to contact anyone. Now both boys are in class and so is Severus, why don’t you come back later today and we can set up a meeting with all three of them for this all to be settled smoothly.”
Lucius looked over to Narcissa who just shook her head. There was no way she was leaving Hogwarts without having seen her son. She just turned around, found a seat and sat down looking straight into Dumbledore’s eyes daring him to say something about her actions.
“Looks like we will be staying here until we get to see our son. We won’t be a bother to your work Dumbledore; we’ll just quietly wait here.”
The headmaster was not happy. He wanted the time to talk to Severus about the circumstances before he spoke to the Malfoys, now he won’t get that chance. He wanted to tell Severus to keep to the story he told the Malfoys about why they weren’t contacted; now he wasn’t sure what Severus will be saying.
After their charms class Draco and Harry were told that they were needed at the Headmaster’s office. Harry looked surprised but Draco gave a grimace when he heard the news.
“I bet my parents are here. They would have found out the news by the paper instead of by my letter. I don’t even think Snape sent my letter since the paper distracted all of us.”
Harry gave Draco a look of understanding and squeezed his hand to show his support. Then they both started to head towards the Headmaster’s office passing by Severus on the way.
“I see this must be about our bonding. I’m surprised we weren’t called in earlier than this by the headmaster considering Potter is involved.”
Harry looked down feeling sad that Snape seemed to be back to his old self. Draco glared at Snape; he just hoped that the rough day of teaching is what caused him to be so mean. All three headed up the staircase and arrived at the office noticing the Malfoys first.
“Mother, father! Let me start by saying I did write a letter and was sending it this morning when we saw the news, I really didn’t want you to find out about all this that way.”
Narcissa ignored her son and just grabbed him for a hug. Lucius smirked a little at the way Draco blushed at his mother’s actions. Lucius then looked over to Severus and raised his eyebrow asking without asking what was going on.
“Lucius, I’m sorry you found out about the bond this way. We really were sending a letter today. Why don’t you both come with us to our rooms and we can discuss this properly over some tea?”
Harry meanwhile was just waiting behind Snape hoping not to be noticed. The headmaster was staring at him though and Harry could tell that he looked disappointed in him for some reason.
“Yes, a great idea Severus, Lucius, Draco dear, let’s head off. Thank you for your time headmaster, we’re sorry for interrupting your day.”
With that the Malfoy family left the office chatting quietly between themselves about what’s been going on since they last heard from each other. Harry quickly tried to follow but Dumbledore stopped him.
“Harry my boy, may we speak a moment? Go ahead Severus; Harry will be with you momentarily.”
Snape sneered at the headmaster.
“Mr. Potter cannot be apart from me or Mr. Malfoy. If you want to speak to him you’ll have to be alright with me being here as well. Besides, as his Alpha he shouldn’t have any secrets from me.”
“Oh is that still an issue? Never mind then, I’m sure we can arrange a meeting some other time Harry. Go ahead and meet up with the Malfoys.”
Harry and Snape both just gave him a strange look and then left the office.
“Draco dear we were so worried when we read the paper. We didn’t even know that you were in the hospital wing and then finding out something as permanent as a bond is involved. How are you? Are you alright?”
“Mom, I’m fine. We’re still settling things regarding the bond but everything is fine. I didn’t get severely hurt, unlike Harry, and being the Beta things are a little easier on me.”
Lucius was shocked at the way Draco called Mr. Potter by his first name. He wasn’t sure if this so called relationship was a great thing considering the family’s connection with the Dark Lord. He was very worried about how the Dark Lord would react to Draco’s bond with the boy-who-lived.
“Draco; you can’t keep this friendship you have with Mr. Potter. You know our connection with the Dark Lord and you know he won’t like us being friendly with the boy-who-lived it could be very dangerous for our family.”
Draco looked at his father in shock. He couldn’t believe that his dad was telling him to ignore his omega; his father knew about A/B/O relationships and understood the way things worked, it must be very serious with the Dark Lord if he’s willing to sabotage the bond.
“But dad…”
“No buts. We serve the Dark Lord. His rules are ours and we will follow them strictly. Do not make this harder on yourself and us.”
Draco looked down and just nodded his head. He felt horrible because without him who knows how Harry will be. But he couldn’t disobey his father, especially when it involved You-Know-Who and his family. He wasn’t looking forward to this though.
Once Harry and Severus arrived to their rooms Draco had already explained what happened to his parents and they were just sitting there trying to process everything in their minds.
“Ah Severus, thank you for taking care of Draco. I’m glad he wasn’t more severely hurt but we must discuss this bond. How will this relationship go? Will you be having a romantic relationship with my son?”
Narcissa sounded all sweet and understanding and patient but Severus and Harry could both tell that she was just trying to stay calm at this time. They both sat down and took a breath knowing this won’t be an easy topic to discuss with Draco’s parents.
“Narcissa, there will be no romantic relationship while the boys are still in Hogwarts. Besides we don’t even know if we will end up having romantic feelings for each other, were still getting to know the side effects of the bond and all that it will involve.”
The Malfoy’s seemed to relax a little after hearing that but still the fact they didn’t know what was going to happen with their son worried them.
“Mom, dad, I’ll keep you better updated now that you know the basics. I’ll make sure to write you at least 3 times a week and tell you everything that is going on with this bond and it’s side effects.”
Lucius nodded and stood up.
“Well, at least we know we’ll be better updated this time and Severus, next time my son is in the hospital wing I expect a notice right away.”
With that he helped Narcissa get up, they gave Draco a hug and they left the rooms. Draco got up right away and went to his room and just laid on his bed to think some more about what his dad said regarding Harry. Harry on the other hand couldn’t help but notice that the Malfoy’s didn’t acknowledge him even once and that Draco ignored him too once his parents were gone. He was getting a bad feeling about all of it.