Memoirs of a Serpent's Son

Memoirs of a Serpent’s Son

--Age 17—part 9

September 6 –continued

I’ve discovered throughout my life that there are many different kinds of disbelief. There is the kind that you experience when something is too good to be true. There is the kind that you feel when you are told something so horrifying and painful that you simply don’t want to believe it…and then there’s the kind that hits you so hard that you are stripped of your words and even your thoughts for a moment. The kind of disbelief that follows a really bad prank that tempts the limits of all things socially acceptable.

That’s what this was.

A really, really terrible joke.

It was so terrible I ALMOST laughed. I almost laughed and waved it all away as though everything that Potter had just told me must have been leading up to that.

HOW could I believe him? HOW?

This is my FATHER we’re talking about… LUCIUS MALFOY.

“Come on, Potter,” I hissed, the tone of my voice a muddled mess of chaotic emotions. “That’s not funny. Tell me the truth.”

“I’m not joking, Malfoy,” he replied quietly. I studied his face carefully for a few moments. His eyes would not leave mine.

It couldn’t be…

“You don’t understand,” I argued, starting to tremble. It was like I was doing everything in my power to prove Potter wrong… “This is LUCIUS MALFOY you are talking about! My father is the most self-obsessed person in existence! To him, killing himself would be an affront to nature!!”

“Malfoy, I know this is a lot to take in…” he started, lifting a hand to place what I imagine would have been comfortingly on my shoulder. But I swatted it away. I couldn’t let it land there. Letting him touch me like that would mean that I believed him. That it was possible.

“There is no way my father would do ANYTHING that was detrimental to him unless,” I rambled, my eyes roaming freely around the room to take everything in very quickly. It was dizzying. “Unless, by some improbably MIRACLE there was some kind of irrefutable benefit to him or his –”

And then it hit me. It hit me harder than even the initial revelation had. Imagine being thrown headlong into a stone wall from hundreds of feet in the air by a dragon soaring at top speed. Something to that effect was what I felt.

I stopped dead. There is no better way to explain it because I’m sure I looked as though I’d simply stopped living, somehow managing to stay standing perfectly still. I didn’t breathe. I didn’t blink. I didn’t even think.

Those three words just reverberated inside my mind for what felt like hours as the absolutely terrifying thought came to me.

“Or who?” Potter asked carefully. His eyes shone with interest and I could tell that he knew that whatever I had been about to say was desperately important.

But I didn’t answer him. I was still in my strange comatose state. It lasted a few more moments before I spun around to Potter and grabbed him by the collar, my eyes wide with fear and urgency.

“You need to take me to Gringotts right now.” I didn’t ask. I didn’t even suggest. The way I spoke the words made it quite clear that there was no other option.

“What?” he spluttered. I think I may have caught him off-guard with the collar grabbing but there was no time for his slowness. We could already have been too late…

“If what you say is true and my father is dead,” I began quickly and with all of the stress I could manage. “then you have to get me to Gringotts. NOW.”

“But the Ministry is still after you,” he mumbled. His eyes shone with understanding. He knew that we needed to act. Potter isn’t stupid. Not as much as I pretend he is. Not when it comes to things like this…

“I don’t care! There are more important things than my evading the law to be dealt with!!” I faltered very slightly in my speech but Potter didn’t seem to notice. He just nodded and I let him go.

“Ron, get me my invisibility cloak,” he asked quietly, turning away from me for the first time since he’d told me about my parents’ deaths. “I’ll Apparate us both to Diagon Alley and take Malfoy to Gringotts. Have Remus meet us outside Fred and George’s shop in half an hour to get us back.”

His friends nodded as Weasel handed him the cloak. He threw it over me and pulled me very close to him, wrapping his arms so tightly around me that I thought I might have broken had I not been as solid as I am.

I half-heartedly wanted to believe it was because he was comforting me… or truly wanted to be holding me…showing me fierce love…but the more logical side of me suggested that it was probably to ensure that I couldn’t just escape while he couldn’t see me.

Not that I had any intention to.

We rushed into Gringotts as soon as we got to Diagon Alley…. Potter was holding my hand now… Just as tightly as when we’d Apparated, but somehow it felt more equal.

We pushed through the bustling people and I pushed Potter up to one of the Goblins. I instructed him carefully to demand a private audience with an estate Goblin immediately. Meanwhile I searched the room carefully for anyone I might recognize… or anyone that might seem out of place.

My eyes fell on a massive board in the background of the room. It was off in the distance but just as bright gold and bronze as the rest of the room. It was a board with the top ten wealthiest estates in the wizarding world. The Malfoy name was always in either the top or second position. I remembered vaguely staring up at it when I had first come to Gringotts with my father…

I remembered my father…

And I felt a stabbing pain in my stomach with a simultaneous compressing feeling in my chest. I doubled over momentarily, shrugging off the feeling and reminding myself that those memories were not fond ones.

Finally the Goblin came to escort Potter and I (though I was still cloaked) into a room. As soon as we were in I removed the cloak and, somehow, the Goblin did not seem surprised at all.

“Good afternoon, sirs, how can I assist you?” the Goblin asked, though the politeness was very mildly tainted with distaste.

“I need to see all of the paperwork related the Malfoy vaults and estates,” I said briskly, carefully beginning to roll back the bandage that was on my arm.

“I see you are already aware that blood proof is necessary,” the Goblin remarked, eyeing my bleeding arm. Potter just stood rather dumbstruck.

“Yes,” I answered. I held out my arm to him and he collected some of the dripping blood. After placing my sample onto a silver plate, covered in runes and markings, the Goblin waved a hand and the blood drops sizzled and drew out thin lines to display the Malfoy crest.

“Very well, Mr. Malfoy,” he nodded to me. “Everything seems to be in order. I shall return in a moment.”

He left and I stared at the drawing my blood had made. I stared hard into that crest and everything that it meant and the fact that this showed not only that it was fundamentally a part of me, but also that everything Potter had told me was true.

My parents really are dead.

I am the successor to all of the Malfoy estate.

“Here we are, Mr. Malfoy,” the Goblin greeted as he returned with massive rolls of parchment. Most of these were deeds and proof of ownership to the plots of land that my family has owned for centuries. There were several to do with different vaults holding money, jewels, antiques and all sorts of treasures, but those are not what interested me.

The vault that interested me was the one that bore not only the Malfoy Seal but the Black family Seal as well.

I stared at the paper for a long moment. This was my vault. My name was scrawled in fancy silver lettering at the head of the roll and just underneath it was the word that I surveyed… everything revealed and everything proven in that one word.

-Unlocked-

I ran my finger over the word as though hoping it might just smudge and fade away… but it didn’t. There was no denying it anymore.

“Has anyone tried to open the vault?” I whispered, still staring at the word.

“No one apart yourself, sir.”

“I want all of the contents of each vault carefully removed and switched into new vaults. Then the ownership of the vaults will be switched,” I told the Goblin carefully as he scribbled down the directions. “I will maintain secondary ownership for the time being but I want the main ownership switched and sealed with a blood proof.”

“To whom do you wish to give primary ownership?” the Goblin asked pointedly over his glasses. He gave me a hard look and I gave him a similar one back.

“To Harry James Potter.”

Everything was quiet for a very long moment. So quiet that I could hear the questions erupt in Potter’s mind as he stood behind me, possibly feeling very much like I had before we left for the bank.

“Are you sure, Mr. Malfoy?” the Goblin asked.

“Yes,” I nodded, feeling suddenly very nervous. “Though as for this vault,” I added, showing him the vault that was solely under my name. “I want it to be a joint ownership with blood proof.”

“You realize that means that you cannot access the vault without both yourself and Mr. Potter present?” the little creature pressed, clearly thinking I was out of my mind. Potter gaped at me and I’m sure he felt much like the Goblin did.

“I do,” I answered. I didn’t need to tell him that that was exactly why I was setting it up that way. “And I want it locked, to be unlocked only when both Mr. Potter and I are present. Do you understand?”

The Goblin simply nodded and took another sample of my blood along with a larger sample of Potter’s. The expression on his face was rather priceless. I’d never seen him look quite this lost before and, despite the situation and everything that has happened… I let a small smile ghost over my features before keeping my expression as neutral as I could.

We left the room and I put the cloak back on. As we walked out into the atrium, I looked back up at the board and my family name was no longer in the top position. It was second. In first position was Potter’s name.

He lead me back through the massive doors, holding my hand though slightly looser than before, and down the winding alley until we found ourselves standing just outside the doors of ‘Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes’. I looked up at the name and smiled again, despite myself. One day I might have to tell them just how much I admire them for their accomplishments.

Maybe…. One day.

“Malfoy…” Potter whispered under his breath. I knew what he was about to ask but that was neither the time nor the place to explain.

“Wait until we get back, Potter,” I told him, noticing the disheveled figure of the Werewolf weave through the people in the Alley.

I…I lost myself there. As soon as Lupin greeted Harry and took my arm to Apparate us back to wherever we were… I lost it. It was like the storm finally hit.

I’d done what I needed to… I had sidestepped the imminent danger and, somehow, now it was all filtering back into me. The reality of what my situation was…I mean.

I’m…I’m an orphan.

I have no parents. I have no family that’s worthy anything… no one I know of anyway. I’m alone and a blood traitor and just handed over everything I owned to Harry Potter.

No…. no that was the right thing to do! It needed to be done! It was the only way! And he’s… he’s safe. He won’t betray that… he’ll keep it all safe. Yes…. Safe…

Lupin let me go when we were safely back inside the house-thing… and I realized that we were in the sitting room. Weasel and the mudblood were there waiting for us…along with the purple haired witch from before. She nodded sadly to me once I’d removed the cloak…though perhaps it was Potter who removed it. I don’t remember.

Someone led me to a chair and urged me to sit. Lupin suddenly reappeared with some tea and then they all turned to me and waited as though they were expecting to be told a goodnight story of some sort.

Each of their faces held something different. The witch I didn’t know seemed sorrowful but almost proud. Lupin had some kind of disappointed understanding on his face. Weasel’s face was blank, at best, as though he couldn’t quite figure out how to feel, though Granger’s face was mournful and compassionate.

I’d never noticed how she does that. I don’t understand it. She seems to care even for those that she hates. She has no reason to show me compassion… but she did… sort of.

But Potter… Potter had a whole different myriad of things written on his features. He sat closest to me and I could practically see the strange tension between us. He twitched slightly several times like he was fighting the urge to touch me and his face broadcast a sense of confusion and frustration and sympathy, all in one.

It was hard to manage, but somehow I think he’s had practice.

I, on the other hand, probably looked something like Weasel. I took a sip of the tea and sat back a bit, looking at them all in turn.

“I…er…” I began, my voice quavering with every time I spoke. Lupin smiled carefully at me.

“It’s alright, Draco,” he said softly. “Take your time… this must be very hard for you. You don’t need to talk right away.”

I gave him a strange look. I didn’t know what to feel. I’d always mocked him as a teacher… but he really did know what to say to calm you down and yet get you to do as he wanted.

“I imagine that you’ve figured out that the only person my Father would have killed himself to serve was Voldemort,” I stated rather calmly. Weasel winced slightly but Potter’s face shifted and he almost smiled. Perhaps he did. I don’t know for sure.

“Yes,” Potter said. Everyone else seemed to think it too awkward to tread there. “But we have no idea how that could have helped him. I…I know it must have something to do with those vaults, Malfoy.”

“It has everything to do with those vaults,” I corrected, looking at him. I sighed deeply. I never would have thought I’d have to explain anything of this in my lifetime.

“Why? What’s so special about what’s in those vaults?” he asked me, more persistent this time. I sighed again.

“You wouldn’t really believe me if I told you.” It was true. I hardly believed it. He shook his head at me.

“Try me,” he suggested. I couldn’t help but think to myself that he has suggested that before and it didn’t turn out so well, but I shrugged and went on with it anyway.

“It’s hard to know where to begin…” I muttered, placing my teacup on the table and wringing my fingers. “It wasn’t all those vaults that mattered, really. Just the one that was only in my name.”

“The one you specified joint ownership on?” Potter asked. I nodded.

“Yes.” I was finding it hard to say more than one word at a time. “I supposed I should start from the beginning.” I looked out at each of them. “The Malfoy vaults are numerous and filled with treasures of all sorts. It’s not only money that’s held in those things… They were all, however, in the control of my Father. He was able to go into any one of them at any moment and retrieve what was there. Except one.

“My grandparents, from both my mother’s side and my father’s side, set up a vault for me as soon as they found out that my mother was pregnant with a boy. The vault was filled and locked. No one in my family, not even I, had access to this vault. The only time that it would be unlocked for me was in the event of my parents’ deaths. Both of them had to have passed on for me to gain access. And if I can’t access it, no one can. The magical wards protecting that vault were more elaborate than even those that protect Hogwarts. I can’t actually prove that, but I have pretty good reason to believe it…”

“So… your Father killed himself to give you access to that vault?” Granger asked suspiciously. I shook my head.

“No, he did it to give access to Voldemort,” I explained. “All he needed was for the vault to be unlocked. The wards would have dropped and it would become a vault like any other with average protection. Voldemort would have had little trouble infiltrating then, even without my consent.”

“Then what’s in this vault that’s so important?” Potter inquired, his face growing ashen.

“Information.” They stared at me incredulously. “I’ll explain…

“Pure-blood families carry specific records of their lineage and bloodlines. These records detail where bloodlines have crossed and what families have merged. The common myth is that it has something to do with needing to conserve the purest lines and propagate them, but that’s not entirely true.

“The records are also to detail the specific powers and weaknesses that are characteristic to each individual bloodline. Much like with anything, being of pure lineage comes with plenty of positive attributes, but it also conserves some of the more negative ones. Like inherent diseases or weaknesses.

“What makes my vault so special is that it doesn’t solely contain records on the Malfoy family,” I paused to breathe, hoping that my face wasn’t as red as I felt it was. “It contains the records for every pureblood family that still sustains.”

I stopped. I needed to take a moment to calm my heart rate and hoped that I wouldn’t get bombarded with questions right away, but that was too much to hope for. Clearly.

“How –what -….WHAT?” Potter exclaimed long before he had even managed to formulate a coherent question. The faces of everyone else in the room expressed a similar feeling, except for Lupin, anyway.

“I told you you wouldn’t believe me,” I muttered.

“Why do you have access to all this information? And why doesn’t the Ministry have that kind of thing? Or…or…” he lost his words and I lost my nerve…for a moment.

“Ok, look,” I started again. “The Malfoy and Black lines go very far back… much further than most. While the Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff lines can be traced relatively far back, there is a difference. The Malfoys and the Blacks were some of the very first wizards to exist and come together to create a community. That and…”

I stopped because I didn’t really want to say it. Normally, in any other circumstance, during any other moment of my life, I would have said it proudly with no doubt and with all the arrogance that an admission like this one should entail but… not today… not the day I was made an orphan.

“And?” Potter asked. There was a little more softness to his tone.

“And in the early days of the wizarding world,” I said quietly. “the Malfoys were royal.”

The appropriate stunned silence followed that comment and I felt every pair of eyes in the room (and some that I’m sure were not in the room) on me, boring into my soul and dissecting every last inch of me.

“Er…ok…” Potter mumbled.

“It was quite a long time ago, alright?” I added, rolling my eyes slightly. “And the Blacks were ultimately of highest nobility next to that. The two families have always had close ties… and because they were both of such high status, they carried the old records of blood and marriage. Each family has religiously continued to document the bloodlines since, though the Malfoys are clearly not royal any longer.”

“Then why continue it?” Lupin asked calmly while all the others stared blankly. I knew it would happen…

“Because the intention was to maintain the purity of the blood so that my family could eventually regain the throne.” I shook my head and decided to continue before I got more questions. “Look, the Malfoys only have a portion of the documentation. The Blacks had the other. For each family, as it is with all pure-blooded families that still follow the traditions, the documents are to be passed down every generation to the first born masculine child, and so forth.

“For the Black family, my uncle Regulus should have received the inheritance, but he was killed and never married. After that it should have gone to Sirius but he was considered a traitor. Then there were only girls. Andromeda married a muggle, so the purity was lost. Then there was only Aunt Bellatrix and my mother. As my mother clearly married into the higher ranked family and quickly became pregnant with a boy, she was awarded the rights to the inheritance. My father was first born on his side, though he was never given access to the vault because I was born before his parents died.”

I stared at them all and shuddered. This was likely very confusing, not only because I wasn’t very apt at describing the whole complicated mess, but also because I was dealing with half-bloods, a mudblood and a pure-blood that had long-since given up on pure-blooded traditions. I frowned. The purple-haired witch blushed slightly.

“Ok… I think I follow but,” Potter said very slowly. “What if you were to die? There are no more pure-blooded grandchildren in your family, are there?”

I was mildly impressed.

“In that case,” I said carefully. “The vault would be handed over to the closest masculine pure-blooded relative…Again first born of the youngest generation. Which, in my case, I believe, would be Weasel’s eldest brother.”

“Bill??” Weasel exclaimed in confusion. I nodded, assuming he knew what he was talking about.

“I have no relatives on my father’s side,” I whispered. I suddenly became very aware of just how interested they all seemed to become. I felt like some kind of animal put on display.

“Well, how do the records on families outside of your own get updated?” Granger asked pointedly. I resisted the urge to smirk.

“Magic.” She turned a faint shade of pink.

“I see,” Potter muttered, thinking hard. He shook his head. “But I don’t really see why Voldemort would be so terribly interested in all that? I mean apart from knowing who not to kill… perhaps…”

“It has nothing to do with that,” I countered. “There are plenty of pure-blooded wizards that refuse to follow Him. It’s more to do with how he could use the information on the powers and weaknesses of the blood.” He looked confused. “Pure blood is really important, Potter. A lot of wizards don’t understand why now, but there really is extra magic in pure blood than any other. It comes with specific characteristics. Now if you hand over those characteristics to a raving power-hungry lunatic with impressive powers, imagine how easy it would be for said lunatic to manipulate weaknesses in the blood and force people to follow him or do his bidding… Control them like puppets or use the information as a threat. Many families have lost interest in keeping the records and so have no idea what their weaknesses are. They can’t protect themselves against those kinds of attacks before a lot of them don’t believe they are still possible.”

“That’s mad!” Potter shouted, sudden understanding dawning on him. I almost chuckled. “We can’t let that happen!!”

“Precisely, Potter,” I sneered, though very mildly. “which is why I had you take me to Gringotts right away.” He became quiet and confused again.

“When you transferred control of everything to me,” he murmured. I nodded. “Why? Why me?”

I thought about it for a moment before deciding on the most honest answer I could.

“Because I needed a way to ensure that Voldemort has no access at all, but that we still do if we need it,” I replied. “And I trust you.”

The room grew quiet again and I felt very self-conscious. Something about being in this house and knowing that I have nothing left…. It makes me reveal things so easily. Or perhaps it’s because I know there is no other way… perhaps it’s just because I really do trust Potter…and I know he won’t use it against me…

Perhaps.

“Draco,” Lupin’s voice came calm and soothing. “Thank you for everything you’ve done today… It must have been very hard what with everything you’ve learned. I know Professor Dumbledore would be proud of you… as am I.”

The mention of Dumbledore caused me to visible wince and that compressing feeling caught hold of my chest again. I felt like crying, but knew that I couldn’t.

“Thank you,” I said meekly, feeling unlike myself again.

“I think you need to rest a bit,” Potter suggested. He offered his hand for me to get to my feet.

I eyed it carefully for a moment before taking it and allowing him to lead me back to my room.

I sat down on the bed and stared down at the floor for a while. Potter sat next to me and mimicked my gaze.

It was nice…

Just sitting quietly with nothing to say or do for a few moments… just to feel him there, even if he was reluctant to do so… it was nice.

“I almost forgot,” I said quietly. “How did you want me to help you with the horcruxes?”

“Just forget that for now,” he answered, shaking his head. “You need to recuperate a bit… we can talk about that later.”

But he didn’t leave. He just sat there next to me for a few moments longer.

“You can go back to your friends,” I offered, knowing he likely did not want to stay.

“I don’t want to leave you alone, Draco,” he whispered. I turned and looked at him. His eyes were shining and sad as he watched me. He parted his lips very slightly.

And then he kissed me.

He leaned in and pressed his lips softly to my mouth and let me feel him. His hand came around and caressed my cheek. I tensed at first but let myself melt quickly into his embrace and pressed back into the kiss.

He was so warm and welcoming. My tongue slid through his parted lips and finally met his. They fought and danced as I brought my arms around him to pull him closer to me and angled my head to make the position more comfortable.

I let my hands roam on his body… over his shoulders and to the back of his neck… I felt the soft hair at his nape and fingered it with one hand as the other went off to trail a line down his back.

He felt so hot. It was electrifying to be able to hold him this way. He brought his arms tighter around me and I let my hands drift down just slightly past his waist to pull him up against me.

But he suddenly tensed and pulled away. His eyes were sad and apologetic but he shook his head. I felt my breath hitch and trembled slightly.

“I’m sorry, Malfoy,” he whispered. He shook his head and little daggers sliced through my chest. I knew what was coming, I’m not going to lie… “What would they think? What would they say?... I just… I’m not… I can’t…. I’m sorry…”

I sucked in my bottom lip and scraped my teeth over it before turning away and looking at the ground. I saw it coming but that didn’t mean I was ready for it…

Though I suppose the dull pounding in my chest was usual by now… I shouldn’t have expected anything else. I didn’t push… I didn’t get angry. I didn’t do anything…

“I think I should be alone for a while.” I didn’t even believe the words but I wouldn’t look at him. I don’t know if he believed me or simply understood what I was asking of him. I vaguely saw him nod out of the corner of my eye.

He got up and left, whispering a quiet apology as he did.

I’m sorry too…

--------IIIIIII-------

A/N: I’m SOOOOOO sorry for the sudden absence there, but my best friend came in from out of town so I spent the weekend with her and went to do fun and nerdy things like going to Anime North and watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. I love being a nerd sometimes hahahaha. No, I lied, I’m not a nerd. I’m uber cool hahahah

Ok ok I’ll shut up about that, anyway I DID post a longer chapter though to make up for it! And it’s not so much a cliffie! Well… anything at this point could be a cliffie because you don’t know what’s coming next but well… oh well heeeheee

As for the stuff about Draco there… COMPLETELY my RANDOMNESS taking over. I took a different spin on things and Blood magic and all those wonderful things will play an important role in this fic…that and I think they are ultimately important anyway, but clearly some of these things are less likely than others. I hope you don’t think I’m a raving lunatic or anything! And Draco isn’t going to find out that Tonks is his cousin until later… too much for him to take in for one day… and Lucius Malfoy’s death still isn’t entirely explained, just the most important point there… seemed a good plan to meeeeeeeee and my best friends consequently.

Also, Harry’s reactions have to come in stride because it DID take Draco 6 years to come to terms with his feelings…it cannot happen overnight with Harry, though it will not take 6 years either…. Eheheh I hope you enjoyed it!!

All of your wonderful reviews make me squee! Cookies and love to all! OH I saw these adorable cookie plushies at Anime North and was tempted to buy them to actually send to you all, but then I realized I don’t have anyone address and that’s really not all that safe for different reasons… ah well, you all have my love!

*needs to stop writing novel-length author’s notes*