Twilight Gardens

"It's not fair," Lucius said like a child who didn't get his way. "The Old Man never made me feel like I belonged in this family. He never taught me anything about our heritage or the rights and responsibilities it entails. I know a bit of it but I never felt like a part of it. Now he expects *this* of me. It's just not fair."

"But you're going to do it, aren't you?" concluded Severus gravely.

"Of course," Lucius whispered glumly. "On a lighter note, it seems that we might accomplish Lord Voldemort's mandate sooner than expected. You'll never guess who our newest ally is."

"Probably not. Care to tell me?"

"Pettigrew. You remember that Gryffindor?"

"Yes. I remember everyone of that lot."

Severus secretly wondered how Lucius could think that he would have been able to forget any one of those prats he had known since his first year and had last seen just months before.

"Naturally," Lucius continued, "Pettigrew hasn't openly declared this new allegiance. Lord Voldemort, clever as he is, has decided to use this treacherous Gryffindor as a spy. Ingenious, isn't it?"

"Yes. It just goes to show that even the perfect Gryffindors can't always live up to their House expectations. Since every Gryffindor isn't a hero, perhaps every Slytherin isn't . . . like us," Severus said, clearly missing the point Lucius was trying to convey.

"You're not still on about that Sorting Hat thing, are you?" groaned Lucius.

"Well, they say that there are no witches and wizards who have gone bad *and* not been in Slytherin. Obviously, this unwritten law is now obsolete as it isn't true."

"This isn't about that," Lucius insisted. "This is about us being right and them being wrong."

"Neither are right. We're equally wrong but in different ways."

"Why do you always have to complicate things? Can't you just be happy?"

"There is nothing for me to be happy about, especially now that you're going to marry Narcissa."

Lucius couldn't take his eyes off the floor.