Family Rules

I wish to thank the people who inspired and helped with this story.

Thanks for inspiration – to Underlucius for her story He Falls, and to Fourth Rose for letting me play with an idea about Abraxas’ death.

I read Underlucius’ story He Falls, which deals with traditions in the pure-blood families and describes a Lucius Malfoy, who for a long time refuses to introduce Draco to sex – despite Draco’s insistence – because he, Lucius, has been abused by Abraxas at a very young age. This made me think about Lucius, whom I always pictured to be abusive, cruel and cold-hearted towards Draco. What made him the man he is? What would he look like behind that image of a cardboard villain, an image that crumpled more and more with the release of new canon material? I also stole the notion from Underlucius that pure-blood parents would take an active part in their child’s sexual education, although it’s a mere background detail for my story.

Fourth Rose answered a question about Abraxas on my livejournal and gave me the initial idea that Lucius could be involved in Abraxas’ death and what some of his motives – the political ones – could have been. I thank her for letting me play with the idea that Abraxas had a very different attitude towards the Dark Lord than Lucius.

Thanks for beta-reading – to Mikabird, for all the constructive criticism, the clever ideas and the handholding she’s been doing with the first versions of this fic. To my new betas for helping me with insights and ideas to finish this story after it has been on hiatus for over a year. My style changed a lot during that second phase. Graylor made wonderful contributions to improve dialogue and to add depth to the characters and their story. She also helped to remind me that the Fic Which Got Rewritten Forever would turn into the Fic Which Would Get Posted. *g* I had the most excellent, trustful and mind-blowing discussion with Sirenprincess about the issue of child abuse and how to deal with it in this story. To Waterbird for the amazing amount of detailed feedback she added to the last versions of the story. She saw the big picture and the details as well. I couldn’t have written this story without those four.

Thanks to Sirenprincess, who is the author of Draco’s Protector, for showing backbone and compassion. I loved her story and told her that I also admired her courage. We have been talking ever since. She was the first to encourage me not to be afraid of what I want to write, but to write it and then take the risk and post it. Without her, this story might still be hidden in a secret folder on my laptop.

And finally, thanks to the friends – on- and offline – who listened to me whining about this story for over two years and gave me support to go through with it. You know who you are.

This story is, for several reasons, closer to my heart than any other. I know that it’s harsh and yet I hope that you found it worth your time. If you are still reading, that might have been the case. Thank you for staying with the characters and listening to their story until the very end of this paragraph. If you have thoughts and ideas to share, I’ll listen with an open and grateful heart.

Some facts about child abuse, taken from www.jimhopper.com according to the first UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Children in 2002:

- Almost 53,000 children died worldwide in 2002 as a result of homicide.
- Up to 80 to 98% of children suffer physical punishment in their homes, with a third or more experiencing severe physical punishment resulting from the use of implements.
- 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence during 2002.
- Between 100 and 140 million girls and women in the world have undergone some form of female genital mutilation/cutting. In sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and the Sudan, 3 million girls and women are subjected to genital mutilation/cutting every year.
- In 2004, 218 million children were involved in child labour, of whom 126 million were in hazardous work.
- Estimates from 2000 suggest that 1.8 million children were forced into prostitution and pornography, and 1.2 million were victims of trafficking.