Expecting The Unexpected

Chapter Five - Lucias Malfoy and Other Events

Harry stepped inside, and noted that even though Aberforth no longer owned it (choosing to take retirement after the Battle of Hogwarts), the pub was still as gloomy and filthy as it ever was. However it was warm, with a small fire lit in the grate, and Harry sighed in relief as feeling began to return to his fingers. The relief lasted only a few seconds, however; Draco had stiffened next to him, and Harry followed his gaze. Sat at one of the tables, nursing a shot of Firewhisky, was Lucius. He reached up and touched Draco on the shoulder with an invisible hand in a supportive gesture.

"Good evening, Father," Draco said as he greeted Lucius. Lucius looked up. His eyes narrowed as he surveyed his son, his face cold and emotionless. He checked his watch.

"Draco. Punctual, I see. Very good." He knocked back the remaining Firewhisky and stood from the table. "I have procured a private room in which I wish to speak to you. Follow me." He turned and began to walk out of the main bar. Draco followed, with Harry- still invisible- hot on their heels.

Lucius pushed open the heavy oak door and slipped inside. He kept his back to the door as he crossed the small room and lit a fire in the fireplace, allowing Harry to slip in completely undetected. The door closed behind him with a loud slam. Lucius reached for the bottle of mead on the table and poured himself and Draco a generous glassful. He handed it to Draco, who took it without a word of thanks.

"I am surprised you felt the need for such privacy," Draco began, his voice laced with sarcasm, "given your little public message to me that arrived at breakfast. A Howler, Father? Really? I'd have thought such a public display of outrage was beneath you."

Lucius gave his son a smile; not the type a father usually gave his son- the type Arthur Weasley would give to Ron- but the one a tiger may have given to an antelope just before he went for its jugular.

"Yes," he said, in a tone of voice that almost sounded amused and made Harry want to hex him, "I thought my little letter would unsettle you rather more than a simple handwritten note requesting an audience with you could have. And it appears, mission accomplished. That said, I'd rather discuss the, ah, finer points, shall we say, alone. I have no more desire to discuss our family's business in public than you do, Draco."

"Fine. Then let's get on with it," Draco replied coolly. Harry had to admit he was impressed. Draco was standing his ground, he thought. Clearly the days where Draco idolised his father were over; gone was the spoilt brat who could convince his father to buy his way onto the Quidditch team for him with seven fancy broomsticks. In his place stood a young man, who had made some extremely poor decisions, but was trying to atone for them. The man who was finally thinking for himself and becoming his own person.

"As you wish, Draco. I'll 'get on with it' then," Lucius said. "I shall cut to the chase. Tell me all about your disgusting little tryst with Potter that, if my sources are correct- and don't even think of pretending to me that they're not- has somehow left the boy pregnant with your child."

"I didn't have a 'tryst' with Harry," Draco said, clearly using Harry's given name both to irritate his father and as a mark of their confirmed friendship. "I admit I thought I was, at the time, but none of this is his fault."

Draco retold the tale- about Pansy, and the Polyjuice, and the Room of Requirement and its bloody magic. Lucius, Harry noted, grew paler as Draco talked, looking thoroughly appalled.

"Draco, when you first told your mother and me about your perversion, I made it perfectly clear that you were to be discreet. This is as far from discreet as possible, Draco! Thanks to your inability to control yourself, you have tainted our pure-blood line. A half-blood carrying a Malfoy child? A male half-blood, who also happens to be the most famous wizard in our world? You have disgraced us all."