Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father
Chapter 1
The Attack

See disclaimers in opening.

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The first thing that Lucius Malfoy realized as he awakened was that he was flat on his back in a dingy alley littered with small empty vials and garbage. The second was that he had absolutely no idea where he was or why he would be in such a unsavory place.

It had obviously rained recently, and the alley stank of vomit and filth. Rats ran freely, zig-zagging from place to place in search of food. Well fed rats, he noticed absently. He had ever seen rats quite that size before. They were nearly the size of those small dogs Narcissa had wanted to get to carry around in a dog handbag all day. Lucius had hated the creatures; their constant yapping had grated on his nerves at the breeder. Thankfully, she had moved on from that obsession rather quickly.

Dampness from the wet alley seeped into his clothes. He was filthy, and he grimaced at the smell he realized now was coming from him. He tried to get to his feet, but his left side was burning and his legs were unable to support his weight. His head throbbed as though he had drunk an entire bottle of Old Ogdens and his left hand was useless. He obviously been in some sort of altercation but he had no memory of the event. Unable to locate his wand, nor his pocket watch, he looked up into the night sky to try to judge the time. Draco would notice if her wasn’t home by now and may have summoned the Aurors. Still, would they be able to ind him hee in the muggle world.

An elderly muggle woman pushing some sort of metal cart and dressed in rags approached him, weary eyes full of pity. He glared at her, furious at her presumption that he needed to be felt sorry for. He reached to straighten his emerald silk cravat, not noticing the blood running down his face and staining his formerly pristine white collar.

“I called the medics.” Her voice was surprisingly soft, like one of his governesses when he was a child, rather than the smoker’s rasp he expected to hear. The old woman knelt down to look at him, and Lucius wrinkled his nose at the pervasive body odor the woman was giving off, not to mention the reek of cheap alcohol. She rummaged in her cart and brought out some paper towels, and wiped at his face before he could push her away.

Talking and laughing could be heard from a place outside his field of vision made her stiffen. With surprising strength, she dragged him from his spot in the middle of the alley into a corner behind some dustbins. Black spots danced in front of his eyes as he settled into his hiding spot. She knelt back down, whispering hurriedly.

“You look like a man used to giving orders. Now I’m going to give you one, and you need to listen. You do not belong here; this is not your world. I don’t know how you got here, but this is a dangerous place for people like you. Hide here until the ambulance gets here, and don’t say a word. Then leave, and never return. Do you understand?”

Lucius nodded; the rising bile in his stomach made him want to retch. He was dangerously close to passing out; but he couldn’t, not yet. He couldn’t disapparate in this condition, and he didn’t seem able to control his muscles to even reach for his wand. Did she know what he was? Stripped of his defenses, he watched helplessly as the woman wiped his face with a thin handkerchief and handed it to him, then moved back into the alley. She was carrying a tin can, which she placed in her cart in a paper bag.

A group of four young men, little more than boys approached her. They were walking with their hands close to their sides. It was an odd, deliberate method of movement; there was something in each boy’s hand. They approached the old woman.

“Alice, what are you doing here? You’ve been told not to come down this alley digging through garbage.” The taller boy grinned, showing rotted front teeth. He seemed jittery, as though he was in need of a relaxing potion. Lucius realized they were all muggles, and was annoyed at their bothering a harmless old woman.

“Yeah, Alice. You never know what you might find in one of those cans. Maybe treasure, maybe bodies. Who knows?” A smaller boy with a squeaky voice, not yet reaching the lower tones of a grown man shrieked.

“Since you’re here, Alice, maybe you can tell me about the rich man that was left here earlier. Lenny saw him, didn’t you Len?”

“Sure did”, said a third boy. “He looked like a ponce, wearing velvet, long hair. Prob’ly one of them queers, you know? He was passed out; no way he could have run away. Where’d you stash him, Alice?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Marshall.” The woman’s eyes gave nothing away; not a flinch. Lucius’ respect for her swelled.

“You know where he is”, the taller boy said, sneering. “Is he in yer cart, then? Shall I have a look? Then we can discuss how to pay you back for sending me to jail. I can’t find that bitch woman, but I know you’ll tell me where she is. I got ways for getting old ladies to talk.”

“You almost killed that poor woman. Mina did nothing to you, and you beat her nearly to death.”

“She was nothing but a whore, a bitch turning tricks for a bit of crank. She tried to cheat me, and nobody cheats Donovan Bradley.”

“No one deserves what you did to her.” The old woman had fire in her eyes, and Lucius watched in disbelief as she stood up to the four men. She was either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. The man named Marshall got back to the point.

“The fag, woman. Where is he?” He lifted his arm from his side, a length of pipe clearly visible in his grasp. Alice stood her ground.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

The first blow brought Alice to her knees. Emboldened by their leader, the others joined in, raining kicks and jabs with pipes down on the elderly woman. Unable to locate his wand, Lucius scuttled back further into the darkness. A warm trickle ran down his leg and his face flushed pink in the shadows. Lucius Malfoy, second in command of the Death Eaters had just pissed himself in fear at the presence of a group of muggle thugs. Alice was clearly made of hardier stuff; throughout the entire ordeal, she kept her head down. Even with her last breath, she never gave away his hiding spot.

The men made a cursory search of the area, then hurried away at the sound of distant sirens. Donovan poured something into her creaky metal cart, setting the contents alight. Running to catch up with his retreating friends, the boy departed. The alley was once again silent, but for the crackling of the flames from the cart.

Lucius hauled himself out of his hiding place. Unable to stand, he pulled himself on his belly; his shirt now even more filthy. He finally recognized he was bleeding, and wiped away the stream of pureblooded essence from his brow as he attempted to reach her. Sirens were coming closer now, yet he never stopped his quest.

When the medics finally arrived, they found the dead homeless woman they had known as Alice beaten to a pulp, and an unconscious but apparently equally battered blonde man in a protective position clutching her to him.
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The emergency room was a hive of frantic activity. Lucius assumed he was still in the muggle world; St Mungo’s was quieter and not so bright. He screamed and pushed at the strange people as he was jabbed with needles, and what he was certain was poison began to drip into him. Lights were flashed into his eyes, and chemicals were poured onto his open wounds. His obviously broken ribs were prodded and poked. His fine linen and velvet suit was cut from his body, and he lay naked and exposed in front of the healers. Appalled, he attempted to cover himself . A woman snorted next to his head.

“Relax, love. We’ve seen it all before. Now hold still, we need to put a catheter in.”

Lucius was prepared to argue, to tell them that a woman of her standing had hardly lay eyes on his naked body when a rubber tube was jabbed inside his penis. It felt like fire, and he screamed and swung wildly at the woman.

“Get this nut some Ativan, Marge!”

The woman named Marge approached him with another needle. Lucius screamed as her face seemed to melt in front of him. Pulling out the needle that dripped poison into his veins, he tried to climb out of the stretcher, mindless of the fact his bare backside was on display. Two burly men pushed him back onto the stretcher and his hip felt as though he had been stung by a bee.

Marge’s ativan must have worked, because within moments everything got foggy, and then went black.
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Coming up next: Hermione gets involved, and why does Lucius have human servants?