Miss Patil Takes a Holiday

And again, thanks goes to Jilliane for her unending quest to make me understand rules of punctuation. I'll get there, I promise.

On a seperate note, Myene has nominated The Slytherin Redemption Series for Best Series in the second round of the Quibbler Awards. Check out the site and vote, if you feel so moved. The link to the site is: http://quibbler.this-paradise.com/?page_id=16

Just copy/paste it into your browser.

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Chapter 16: Daughters

Lucius arrived at St. Mungo’s two hours after the firecall from Draco. He was considerably lighter in pocket after bribing the various officials of both Italy and the U.K. for the privilege of being present at the birth of his half-blood grandchild. It had taken a bribe to get the local Portkey agent’s office open in Italy, another to grease the wheels to expedite the Portkey, and yet another to bypass the entire customs machinery at the Ministry of Magic, the only authorised Portkey entry in England since the Dear Old Dark Lord had bollixed things up so many years before.

Ian awaited him in the lobby after Lucius firecalled ahead from the Ministry about his imminent arrival. The priest was looking about the crowded corridor uncomfortably. Ian winced as a victim of a bad potion walked by him. The woman’s hair was a mass of snakes and her face was alternating between a putrid aubergine and radiant Chudley Cannons orange. Lucius smirked as Ian backed away from her and stood next to a truly contagious individual, if Lucius could tell by the blooming pustules on the boy’s face. Lucius approached Ian out a sense of civic duty. He could not let the priest catch the raging case of Dragon Pox the boy had, if Muggles even could.

“Ian.” Lucius said as he surreptitiously cast a cleansing spell and diagnostic on the priest to ascertain if he had indeed contracted the disease. Lucius watched the light play over Ian. It remained blue. Severus had taught him the spell when Draco was young and prone to such childhood diseases. He missed his old friend.

Lucius asked, “I presume that all is well with Elspeth since you are here to greet me?”

Ian smiled ruefully as they made their way to the lifts, “I suppose you could say that. She began hard labour an hour ago. I chose to fetch you so I wouldn’t have to assign her penance for her foul language. Your daughter-in-law can be incredibly... colourful.”

“Draco intimated there was a problem with the birth,” Lucius said as the doors to the lift opened and several people exited. Lucius held the door for the priest as they stepped through. A matronly woman sniffed and scooted to the side, glaring between Lucius and Ian, as if unsure which person to disdain more, the Muggle or the Death Eater “I hope that has been resolved.”

“I don’t know.” Ian answered as he pushed the button for MICU. “She has had some bleeding, but according to her mother, it was stopped by Dr. Patil. She’s been moved to MICU because of her non-magical status.”

“I see.” Lucius felt the familiar pain about his heart at the mention of hi Mona Lisa... no, Dr. Patil. He turned to the doors as they opened, waiting for the matron to exit before stepping off himself. The woman sailed past him, a shocked expression on her face as Lucius intoned, "Have a good day, Madam."

Ian stopped Lucius with a hand to his arm. Malfoy turned to the priest, his back to the MICU doors. "Lucius, I don't know how to say this, but... you seemed to have deeper feeling for the doctor. I was hoping..."

"Ian," Lucius began with a warning tone. "The doctor and I had a lovely interlude. It ended, perhaps inauspiciously, but it is over. Narcissa is my first concern..."

Lucius felt the blood drain from his face as Ian clapped his hands together and addressed a person behind Lucius. "Dr. Patil, are you taking a break?"

&*&*&

Tomas bristled as the white-faced git greeted Padma stiffly. "Doctor Patil, I hope things are well with you."

Malfoy sketched a bow and swallowed convulsively, causing his shirtfront to bob up and down with his laryngeal prominence as he did. Padma gave a strained smile and motioned Tomas forward. "I don't think you've met my..."

"How is my daughter-in-law?" Lucius barked, looking past Tomas as if he did not exist. Tomas clenched his wand tighter, aching to blast the git with that Slapping Curse. He could just imagine the former Death Eater's cheeks a rosy red, and of course, he did not mean to aim for the ones on his face.

Padma stepped away, dropping her gaze to the floor, but not before Tomas saw the tears on her black lashes. "Mrs. Malfoy is doing well, but I will be on call until she gives birth."

Lucius glowered at Tomas before saying, "I see you've recovered from your holiday. Good day, Doctor. I must attend my family."

As the two men walked away, Padma whispered, "I need to get out of here."

She took his hand and Tomas leaned over, putting his arm around her shoulder. "It will be okay, Love. I promise."

As they entered the lift, Tomas turned to face the door. He saw Lucius bloody Malfoy staring after them, his expression pained. Padma laid her head on Tomas' shoulder, and Malfoy disappeared into the MICU corridor with his poncy cane and his effete nose in the air.

&*&*&

Draco greeted Lucius from his position behind his panting, red-faced wife. "Father, I'm so glad you could make it. I suppose mother was detained. It's just as well."

Draco's comment brought a sharp look from Lucius. He knew his son too well not to know that Narcissa's absence hurt him. Lucius felt the need to ease his son's hurt. "She's been unwell since returning from New York."

"I hadn't heard." Draco began kneading his wife's lower back. "Do you know where she's staying so that I may contact her when the baby arrives?"

Lucius attempted not to let his puzzlement show. "She didn't tell you? She returned to Tuscany with me after..."

"Fucking hell, this hurts!" Elspeth groaned as another spasm rippled under her cotton covered belly. She rode out the contraction and then snapped at Lucius, "Don't just stand there like a fucking idiot. Go get the doctor. I want this thing out of me!"

There were reasons that the Muggle practice of allowing familial admittance to the birth room had not been accepted by the wizarding world. Lucius retreated after flexing his fingers so as not to curse his son's lovely wife, arriving at the nurse's station as Elspeth gave a air-rending screech followed quite coherently by several curse words that made him blush. The chit sounded like one of the former dockworkers, now on the dole, of which Father Cavanaugh was so fond of ministering. Lucius cleared his throat, attempting to cover the flushing of his skin by waving a hand before his face as if he were overheated. "If I might importune you for one, it seems my daughter-in-law is in need of a Calming Draught."

Lucius scowled as the two midwitches behind the counter rolled their eyes expressively. The tawny-haired one with an incipient moustache and a rather large bottom, finally answered,”She's already been given one, Sir, as well as a host of Muggle drugs, and I'd say she's rather calm for what she's going through."

Elspeth continued screaming filth and obscenities, and began vowing the destruction of all Malfoy assets, as it were. Wishing he could pry his son away from the harpy as he did, Lucius decided to beat a hasty retreat. Surely, someone in the room needed tea.

Once in the small cafeteria, he made his way through the maze of lines, looking at the odd varieties of foods, all under stasis charms and then wrapped in that clear Muggle film. He picked a small china cup and proceeded to fill it from a carafe of coffee, another Muggle device. He then made his way to a small table behind a silk plant that he supposed was there for decoration, but only served to annoy him. It was when he took his first sip of tepid, weak coffee that he heard Mona Lisa.

"I can't tell him, Tomas. No," she was saying over her paramour's objections.

The man was a bit effete for her, if Lucius was any judge of character, but perhaps her parents had intervened in her life as she had said she feared. He wished her well over the strange tightening in his throat.

The man said, "He'll know soon enough. You should tell him. Today, while he's here and away from that bitch of an ex of his."

"Don't say that. We don't even know her." Padma's voice was strangely soft and tearful. Lucius peered through the dusty fronds of the silk plant, surprised to see tears glistening on her cinnamon cheeks. They left dark trails on her skin. "Besides, she's pregnant, and he obviously did it, so she has prior claim to him and his..."

The words became garbled as his Mona Lisa spoke into her hands, her shoulders shaking.

"Bollocks," the feminine man said, his eyes flashing. "Seamus and I can only do so much. Your child deserves to know who its father is, even if he is a rat bastard."

It was then that Lucius dropped his cup and spoon, drawing the attention of all assembled to his hideaway. He stood, looming over the false plant and the even falser Mona Lisa. The only words that came to mind were the bald truth, "You're pregnant?"

Mona Lisa stood and fled, leaving her paramour, or whatever he was to her, behind to face the wrath of a thoroughly enraged Malfoy.

&*&*&

Padma fled back to her offices near MICU, wanting to put this day behind her forever. This was worse than facing the younger LeStrange man in battle, worse than having the Carrow monster grope her as he 'trained' her in the Dark Arts. It was worse than having to face Bapa as she confirmed her pregnancy to him after they were released from the holding cells. Lucius's face had been terrible to behold as he asked those two words. He hadn't wanted an entanglement, that much was obvious. She considered going to India to have the child, living there and working in an orphanage. Or perhaps she could get a job at a hospital in America. Running away had always been her modus operandi, why should she change now that she knew Lucius' true feelings on his bastard child?

She unwarded the door to her office and curled into her chair, looking outside on the bleak, November street. London hadn't felt like home since Greece. She ran her hand over the small not-lump in her belly, more imaginary than real for the time being at least.

There was still time to get rid of it.

The thought made her ill, and she pushed it to the back of her mind, along with the look of fury on Lucius' face as he found out about Lumpkin.

She tried to dredge up hate or some other equally destructive emotion for him, but couldn't. She loved him and couldn't deny it any longer. Whatever his feelings on the child she carried, she would keep it because it was a little part of him. She dashed away the tears that threatened to fall and addressed her belly, "Well, my little Lumpkin, it seems it's going to be just you, me, Auntie Tomas and Uncle Seamus. I'm sorry you've got such a fucked up family."

She watched out the window as the drizzle that had begun to fall turned to fat snowflakes, coating the grime of the street below in pale snow. Diwali had ended and Padma's devotions had gone unanswered. It served her right. Why should she and Lumpkin prosper at the expense of another woman's child?

Her thoughts turned to Mrs. Malfoy, with her English rose complexion and cool composure. Padma, with her work hardened hands and sharp temper, could never compete with that ice queen. Lucius had loved her first, and apparently thoroughly. Padma had been just a passing fancy, a way to fill the hours until Lucius could assume his role of patron of the wizarding world again. Honestly, Padma could not see herself in Malfoy Manor, or anywhere that Lucius, with all his galleons, breeding, and pureblood, patrician snobbery would haunt. The only place that they had worked was in that fusty little villa in Greece. It was just as well that he had impregnated his ex-wife. Perhaps he would leave Padma and her child in peace. She could raise Lumpkin without all that pureblood, Death Eater baggage.

She almost had herself convinced when she heard a summons over the hospital wireless. Padma straightened her hair and cast a cooling charm over her face. The newest Mrs. Malfoy needed her services, Lumpkin and the future would have to wait.

&*&*&

Tomas almost felt sorry for the git as he watched Padma exit the cafeteria. His expression was bleak and grey as he fumbled to seat himself, almost as if he had been stricken blind. He watched as Malfoy's jaw worked, the muscles bunching and relaxing until he said, "Is it yours?"

"Mine?" Tomas almost laughed until he observed the way Malfoy carefully folded a handkerchief to begin cleaning the tea from his cloak. "She didn't tell you about me?"

Malfoy stopped the scrubbing motion for a moment, looking stupidly at the cloth before he put it aside and Evanescoed the rest of the liquid from his clothing. "Obviously not. How long have you two been lovers?"

At that, Tomas did laugh, the noise startling the pureblood git, who sat scowling at him, looking like an angry, wet bird. "Since never. I'm her flatmate. The gay one... who shags men. I couldn't... Ew..."

Tomas gave an unaffected shudder as Lucius covered his face with his hand. Alarm shot through the smaller man as Malfoy's shoulders began to shake. "Mr. Malfoy, are you..."

"I am a fool." The blond man said as he raised his face to Tomas, his eyes suspciously red-rimmed. "I love her, you know. I admitted it the night I was attacked by that Prudish fellow. Not to her of course, but to myself. I was going to ask her to formalise our alliance that evening."

"Oh."

"Just so." Lucius gave a short bark of laughter in response to the smaller man's interruption. Malfoy began toying with his broken cup, dropping the pieces into the saucer, each clink louder than the last. "Could you please tell her..."

Malfoy's face rippled with unspoken emotion, then smoothed, "Please let her know that if she needs anything, it is hers. I won't have it said that I didn't provide the proper care for my child. Not again."

The man stood and strode from the room, his cane clacking heavily against the tiled floor.

"Damn," Tomas said to no one. "I wanted to hate him."

&*&*&

Dibby knew he was going against the Elf Mother's express orders but thought the situation called for it, even if he would have to punish himself with many ear ironings and bashes to his head. He narrowed his eyes as he followed the old Mistress through the villa. She was shedding clothes and laughing as a young man followed her. She was big with child, but smaller than she should be for the mating she had with Master Lucius only eight months before.

Dibby Vanished himself and followed the young American man to the bed room, now not off limits to him, since he no longer belonged to the family. He listened as the two plotted and planned to part Master Lucius from his money and leave him with the young man's child while Mistress Narcissa stayed in that country that encouraged free elves and bad behaviour. When he heard enough, he removed himself with a soft pop of Apparation.

He had to think about what to do to save his old Master and reunite him with his new Mistress. Dibby would have to interfere just once more. He hoped Elf Mother would understand.

&*&*&

Lucius came to the door just as Mona Lisa delivered his granddaughter, her deft hands seperating the child from the mother's body, and easing the purplish mass of caul off the child's head. He felt tears in his eyes as he watched the people whom he loved most in the world rejoice over the successful birth of the latest Malfoy. Halfblood or not, she was a special child with her shock of blond hair still dark from the blood and amniotic fluids of her recent travels.

Mona LIsa placed the child on Elspeth's belly and clamped the cord before cutting it. Once done, she placed the child on the floor of the room, as was Pureblood custom from the time of the Caesars, awaiting Draco's approval. Lucius' son scooped the little girl up in his arms and said her name for the first time. "We will call her Iris Lucia Malfoy... uh Cowell-Malfoy."

He raised his daughter up to the heavens as he pronounced her name and then handed her to the midwitch who waited to clean her. Elspeth was strangely silent during the naming. Lucius thought that perhaps Muggles could learn to live within the rarefied air of the wizarding world. He caught his daughter-in-law's eye and bowed before entering the room. He bent to kiss her sweat-soaked brow and she smiled sloppily at him, closing her eyes at the effort it took to speak.

"Thank you for coming, Mr. Malfoy. It really means a lot to both of us."

Lucius smiled, a true one, rarely bestowed, and never on Muggles. "Thank you for everything, Madam. My grand-daughter is lovely."

He turned away from the exhausted woman only to be met by Mona Lisa's eyes, which were dark with reproach and pain. She whisked from the room after ensuring the baby's health, he gait oddly stiff. Lucius watched her go, unable to assure her that things would be well between them. Unable to acknowledge the child he had put in her body. Tomorrow he would find out what Narcissa hid, but today both he and Mona Lisa would have to live with the pain of uncertainty.

Draco approached him as Lucius made to leave. "You love her, don't you? Padma, I mean."

Lucius pulled on his gloves, ignoring his son's query. Draco said, "It’s odd, the timing of Mother's indisposition, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't know, Son." Lucius answered feeling the crinkle of the unopened letter from Severus that he had thrust in his pocket before he left the villa. He fingered the stiff parchment through his cloak. Perhaps he would read it while he waited for his Portkey to activate. "I must be going."

&*&*&

Lucius,

It has been a long time, Old Friend. I hope I can still be counted among your friends, given the revelations your son gave to me just this evening. I am sorry that Albus did not follow through on his promises. He seemed to fail both of us almost as much as the Dark Lord did.

Things are going well here. I have married and have several children. My oldest, whom I adopted a few years ago, is a young man who will begin teaching at Hogwarts next autumn. He obtained his mastery from me and has been working on some research at our facility. My second child, my son's cousin, is studying veterinary medicine at a Muggle University and has also obtained her mastery, in Magical Creatures. I have two young children with my wife, and we are expecting a third soon.

I find this letter exceedingly difficult to write. There is at once so much and so little to say. We lived through a lifetime of war, deceit and injustice. We both suffered for the causes that enveloped us, and yet, somehow, we survived. For that I thank Providence. I pray that this letter finds you in good health, and with all your teeth. You always were vain about your looks. It should hearten you to know that I still have all my hair. I do remember your dire predictions all those years ago about the state of my thinning locks.

I shall be in England at the beginning of next year to settle my son and his wife into his new position, and to assume control of a small Potions company which my wife and I acquired recently. She Has accepted the post of Director of Research at St. Mungo's Potions development laboratory while I toil away at our own business. I look forward to seeing you, if you are willing to see me. I do not know what my reception will be after all of our history.

Yours,

S.S.


Lucius carefully folded the parchment and placed the page into the envelope. Tomorrow he had business in America. Perhaps he could pop by and see how his old friend was doing. It might be helpful to have Severus' perspective on Lucius' rather complex situation given that he had impregnated one of his former students and perhaps his ex wife within months of each other.


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