A Romeo\'s Nemesis

Chapter 13
The Floorshow, Final Curtain Call
Internally, the foundation of the nearly twenty year old organization of atrocity was still intact; the shock of it all had impaled its members so obliquely, however, that chance of the reaffirmation imposed upon such frequent \"rehearsals\" was slim. And with one of the Dark\'s Lord\'s most prominent successors cowering in a dank corner of his own home, trembling and for once actually visibly distraught, the rest of the flock of black sheep seemed to emulate the maudlin Malfoy to a tee.

There was no excuse to do nothing but shudder in a strange, removed, devastatingly deceived way when a prehensile brain was busily constructing a plan of escape not so far away. Longbottom, still in a continual vortex of sordid pathos, was first to cautiously poke their fallen prince of darkness with a wand and mumble derisively, \"He\'s dead,\" much to Lucius\' homicidal allaying at that moment.

With the obtuse and frankly, noncommittal burden felled, the real Macnair managed to come out of his magically induced coma and saunter in unobserved until Lucius caught sight of him and lunged weakly. Shouting his protests, Macnair was successfully held down upon the chaste and unsullied marble floor only to be turned to dust in a matter of few syllables.

Although the man was clearly not responsible for Lucius\' home-grown catamite\'s departure, he\'d never liked him and was glad to finally have an opportunity to make true attestment to it. With an absolutely inane expression of momentary bliss plastered across his patrician face, Lucius stumbled to the precise location Sirius had whisked Draco off and ushered Longbottom over to immolate the wretched incendiary.

Grinning disconcertedly, Neville followed Lucius and soon followed Macnair to the same 8th circle of hell according to Dante and Lucius felt even more cheered up. Morning soon accosted and wrapped against the chest of our pure, morally vagrant savage and brought him to new levels of inner hatred.

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\"Don\'t talk to me,\" Draco said solemnly and picked up his cheap cup of tea forlornly, Sirius looking on in mild malevolence, familially eschewed from this particular confrontation, even though it was his home, centuries old and befittingly, with a rich history of dark wizards; it seemed redundant now with Narcissa mewling sadly above her son, attempting to express genuine concern for about the third time in his short opulence ridden life.

Without elves or even a duster, Grimmauld Place looked nothing but as it\'s name foretold; grim. Draco was tired and over stimulated and shuddered every time his mother touched his arm in token comfort. Draco would have none of it and resplendently proceeded to turn his chair away and sulk in abject separation anxiety.

Heaving a great, frustrated sigh, Narcissa klonked down next to his on a presiding chair and dropped her hands hopelessly to the side.

\"You do realise what was about to take place, don\'t you? No matter how much love fodder your father\'s pumped into your passive, sponge like brain, what he planned to induct you into to night would not lend strength to the line or fortify your place as a true wizard and I should’ve done something earlier to prevent all of it...\" Narcissa let her head drop much to Sirius sympathy ignored from the other end of the table. Draco twitched and placed his cup on its saucer.

\"I know my father more than you ever did, Mother,\" Draco whispered almost inaudibly if it weren\'t for the deep gasps he raked through himself every second syllable. Narcissa inwardly groaned and crossed her arms resolutely as a sign of motherly persistence.
\"Insolence, Draco! You have no idea what sort of a monster I married and borne you to!\" Narcissa snapped and rose quickly then sunk down lethargically as if the motion was a true testament as to what undulating her emotions writhed in.

\"I\'m ashamed of my part of your upbringing - practically nonexistent. I hope one day you\'ll forgive me,\" she said slower, noticing how Draco snuck glances every now and then at Sirius as she spoke. At least he was interested.
Slowly turning her head to the side and motioning for Sirius to make himself a bit more prominent in the background, Narcissa stood up and led her son to the sitting room where she proceeded to very slightly back into the pretentious noblewoman Draco was so used to and sat primly on the edge as Sirius oafishly plonked himself adjacent to the fair pair.

Clearing her throat as if about to declare something grave and offer herself a supplicant, Narcissa began the introductions which would ultimately determine Draco\'s acceptance and future.
\"Draco, this is Sirius... my cousin,\" Sirius\' eyes darted between Narcissa and Draco almost warningly but Narcissa ignored the cautionary subterfuge through his deep ridged brow.

\"I love him just as you love Lucius, your father...\"
To this, Draco sat bolt upright and looked downright repulsed; Narcissa didn\'t flinch.

\"As it is, I will not openly condemn your unfortunate proclivity in hopes that you won\'t be so brash to me; I do, however, wish to take it upon myself to protect you from various... undertakings Lucius may want to force upon you...\" Narcissa shirked off her impulse to dive upon her son and coddle him until he suffocated, \"I fear the Dark Lord will return...\" Sirius broke an intermittent silence and gruffly spoke.

\"He always does.\"

Growling hideous diatribes in his mind for firstly being abducted, then sat down with a cup of sour tea with sour milk and then doused with sour conversation regarding the love of his life, Draco was fit to burst and wished he had his wand; it had been confiscated as a precautionary measure in case he decided to try and \"protect\" himself from big D\'s vengeance during initiation even though he\'d promised Lucius he would control his responses. Lucius had told him in no uncertain terms that every creature wishes to live when faced with the sight of their life in another\'s hands - to regain that control so suddenly stripped from them... Draco already had a firm grasp of that and respected his father\'s wishes.

Draco stood up, still in pretty frock, thankfully not commented upon, and placed his cup and saucer by the sink in the kitchen after proceeding in sinking to the floor in tears.

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It was now time for work and the first thing on Lucius\' list or priorities was, of course, to make the divorce to his scheming bitch, Narcissa, final. Having to use a cheap glamorie upon the house elf’s sheepish suggestion, Lucius looked immaculate as usually, clipping hastily through the dusty halls at the ministry until he reached Fudge\'s office and knocked twice. Entering just as hurriedly, Lucius gave a callow smile and sat gracefully in front of the minister.

\"Well, Lucius, I\'m glad to break the news with you first thing this morning... it\'s amazing really,\" Fudge said, genuinely pleased about something relatively important to all of wizard kind by the look on his face. Lucius merely nodded and widened his eyes in a satirical fashion, not trusting himself to speak up just yet.

\"The Dark Lord has been slain...\" Fudge pinkened in pleasure for at last all of his association with the beggar would be nullified and his slate could be wiped clean; Lucius gave a receptive grunt and leaned back, twiddling his cane bemusedly.

\"It happened sometimes last night in an undisclosed location - I don\'t know who managed it exactly, but you can bet it was one of our more modest aurors not wishing too much publicity from Witch Weekly and the like,\" Fudge beamed and sorted some random papers on his desk into a neat little pile.

\"Anyway, I\'m sure you\'re just as happy as I am to receive such blessed news considering your reputation isn\'t much better than mine regarding the... well,\" Fudge eased off as soon as Lucius\' scowl of death began to appear, rapidly losing patience and needing to reach his son.

\"Well, yes, Minister, I am quite... pleased to hear of his demise... again,\" Lucius stated calmly, smoothing out the lines across his forehead instantly, \"however, this morning I would like to rectify some personal matters regarding my wife.... you see, I\'d like to file for divorce. Now.\"

Fudge froze his ever moving hands and officiously began sifting through cabinets with his wand and ordering several subordinate lackeys to fetch the necessary documentation. In a matter of silent minutes, signatures were inked, hands were shook and Lucius was once more a free wizard.

Before Lucius had walked out of Fudge\'s office, Fudge ushered the prominent aristocrat back in for one final inspection.
Looking shiftily at a much taller, powerful man, Fudge screwed up his face in effort, \"This isn\'t about... well, you know... what I told you earlier, is it? Did she... help?\"

Returning Fudge’s awkward gaze with mild amusement, Lucius bowed slightly to make better eye contact and gave a genuinely manic smile, \"Oh yes, she helped with much efficiency,\" then swept out of the room with many a flirt and flutter of other office workers about the halls, frantically trying to escape the rogue path of a Malfoy scorned.

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Although his efforts were solo, they were not without the breadth of experience; using natural powers of deduction, Lucius managed to accumulate enough dark magic to infiltrate the heavily guarded mausoleum that was Grimmauld Place. Feeling dejavous gnaw anxiously in his gullet, Lucius could only hope that this attempt would not result in his last... if he ever discovered just which animal took a shit in his hair.

Forming an invisible ladder against the side of the barrier preventing his access, Lucius hopped up to gain better vantage above the periphery from above. Pleased with what he could see - an open window to be exact, Lucius used a carefully glorified hover charm to propel himself gently off of the outline of the ladder and down to the moulded framework.

Sniffing in distaste, Lucius shed his cloak upon the bed, drew his wand from it\'s sheath and strode commandingly down the hallway to wear the staircase began and he could distinctly hear the cow\'s needling monotone. Grinning with homicidal delight, Lucius quietly dismounted each step until he was about halfway down and decided to eavesdrop as he had done as a child.

\"You\'re mother\'s only trying to do the decent thing, Draco. Lucius is a dangerous man and you will die unless you\'re estranged form him, at least for a little while,\" Sirius spoke needlessly as Draco twitched resolutely upon the dingy cotton fabric covered sofa.

\"Bugger off, mongrel,\" Draco drawled steadily; Lucius felt his heart swell to hear such sweetness emanate from his offspring and sat down, careful to still conceal hismelf behind the generous width of the banister.

\"Draco, you must know now...\" looking worriedly across at Sirius again, Narcissa grasped her son\'s ceaselessly shirking hand and held it still, \"we\'ve formed a pact... a marriage bond...\"

\"You haven\'t even properly divorced him, Mother!\" Draco shouted exaggerating the last word so grotesquely, Narcissa cringed and released her grasp.

\"It\'s probably already been taken care of, knowing him,\" Narcissa mused before going to Sirius and taking his hand still shakily, \"I fear we\'re no longer safe, my son.\"

Draco\'s brow furrowed and his lip curled in abhorred absolution, \"I am NOT your son.\"
Narcissa nodded her had in assent as if expecting this and looked once more up at Sirius before returning to Draco.

\"I don\'t know how I can argue with that, Draco,\" Narcissa\'s eyes welled much to her discomfiture and she couldn\'t bear to meet his gaze, \"but I want you to know that I am not prepared to die for anyone but my son.\"

And with that, Narcissa kissed Draco\'s cheek and rushed back into Sirius\' open embrace to apparate somewhere where Lucius wasn\'t breathing so heavily.

Confused and utterly disappointed, Lucius revealed himself and jogged down the stairs until he reached Draco and fell to his knees with relief.

\"Draco, I\'m sorry,\" Lucius\' muffled apology was heard sanctimoniously through Draco’s abundance of silk and Draco\'s face felt unaccustomed to the dampness it now breathed in. He leaned down and picked up his father\'s shockingly snivelling head, cradling it between his small palms.

\"I wanted to extort them both gradually, son, but...\" Lucius sighed and gave up his plight for articulate discourse as he exemplified flawlessly in Shakespeare and settled with returning Draco\'s embrace for a long while.
Draco\'s eyes met and glowed in the warmth that was his father\'s reciprocation until their lips met and tongues writhed and souls breached captivity and conjoined into one beautiful tangible glory. He was home.

\"Draco, love...\" Lucius brimmed in seeing his son\'s contentment in being reunited with him, the nefarious affable demon that he was, \"Draco, I would die for you; I swear it, I would.\"
Draco chuckled, slaked and calm for once, still stroking his father\'s luscious mane, deliciously proud of his newest metaphorical truth explicitly appropriate for once.

\"This past weekend... it\'s turned out so badly,\" Lucius\' face lit up and he rested his cheek upon Draco\'s lap lovingly, not wishing to blurt out something remonstrative betwixt his son\'s experimentation in language.

\"I think I\'ll always remember it - not just because of its strange cruelty, but because of what we did to get there...the whole thoroughfare - everything... it was as if our whole world was your Romeo\'s nemesis...\" Draco\'s voice filtered off into gentle silence, methodically parting Lucius\' hair into sections to massage his scalp as he knew he loved it.

Lucius murmured into his son\'s sigh, hair obfuscating the neat brimming of moisture between hi eyelids and veiling his cool face with a diaphanous sheen amongst the silken strands. Grunting a sound of confusion, Lucius raised his head a fraction so that his voice could barely be heard.

\"Draco, I love you,\" their eyes caught each other\'s hesitant gleam and Draco gave a shy smile, his eyes too much like his father\'s now, \"I swear to--\"

Suddenly addressing Lucius\' emotional epiphany of sorts, Draco quoted one of his most favourite lines from their performance.
\"Do not swear at all; or if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, which is the god of my idolatry, and I\'ll believe thee.\"

At last raising his head, disrupting Draco\'s fastidious work both in rumination and pacifying motion Lucius\' tears flowed freely and he finally knew himself, loved himself even, through knowing and loving Draco - his son, his lover, his everything combined into one vestige of sanity.

He realised that if he were to die, his visage and abominable principles would be maintained through Draco, but that was impertinent now.
\"Oh, my heart\'s dear love,\" Lucius beamed for the first time in his life, allowing himself freely to engage Draco in a rarity beyond all the emancipation imaginable of a lifelong internment down his own dank torture chambers; he apparated them both back to the Manor and into bed... blithely.



A/N: Well, that\'s the start of my mater plan *dramatic reverb* - this is officially the end of the Malfoys’ segment of particular oddities - I hope you have enjoyed. Next sequels may include the mysterious resurrection of that despicable NL! How could I make him so... EVIL? *Frightening cackle* Why? Because I can. Perhaps Sirius and Narcissa will develop moral duplicity through each other - Sirius being emotionally suppressed from his stay in Azkaban and Narcissa... well, she\'s just a bit of a messed up tart, isn\'t she? And what of the Dark Lord anyway? What was little Tommy\'s childhood like exactly? Ahh, we shall soon see - please REVIEW this story!

* The moral of this story (however much the primadonna to Chaucer I purport myself to be amidst several personal clouds in delusions of grandeur as I\'m admittedly wont to do) is that power and prestige do not always ensure happiness which is an important element in order to enjoy life; I for one, believe that it is the sole reason as to why we are blessed with it.*