Lonely No More

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lucius Malfoy was in a foul mood, having wasted the morning trying yet again to reassure the increasingly

paranoid Minister of Magic that the Dark Lord hadn't returned. Lucius, of course, had told the man what he

wanted to hear even though he knew it was an outright lie.

He had planned to spend yet another decadent and pleasurable day in his London townhouse with his mistress,

the sultry three quarter-blood witch (his 'bit of rough' as one of his friends succinctly put it). His plans were

rudely interrupted, first by the early morning owl from Cornelius Fudge, and a bit later by Narcissa via fire-talk.

Narcissa had insisted that Draco needed some new clothes for his visit to relatives in Ireland the following week,

and this would be an excellent opportunity for their son to drop by in London. Lucius had to appease his sulking

mistress with yet another piece of expensive jewellery.

His mood wasn't improved by Draco's behaviour; the boy seemed bent on annoying him with his endless stream

of complaints. The behaviour Lucius had once tolerated from a 12-year-old was driving him to distraction now

his son had reached 15. At 15, Lucius had already committed himself to Voldemort. At 15, he had proudly

accepted his Master's Mark. At 15, he would have followed The Dark Lord through the very fires of hell.

It angered him that Draco, at 15 was clearly without ambition and seemed content to go on constantly about

Harry Potter and how badly he was treated compared to the Gryffindor. At 15, Draco whined like a girl and

was too scared of his own shadow. Lucius began to wonder if the boy could actually stick up for himself at all.

Draco's chatter distracted him again as he stopped to look in a shop window in a little courtyard off Knockturn

Alley. The shop was a new wand establishment and his colleagues had told Lucius that it was possible to get any

type of wand you wanted from there; including those that could not be traced back to its user. Hence, the spells

cast using the wands were totally untraceable.

"I'd like a new wand."

Lucius frowned at his son. "You want a new wand?"

Draco leaned close to the glass, looking at an elegant wand made of a very pale wood, so pale it was almost

white. "Yes, I'm sure there's something wrong with mine. That would explain why I have so much trouble with it."

"So, now you are blaming your wand for all your troubles. Was that why you allowed those Weasley brats to

hex you on the train – because your wand was useless?" He muttered a simple retrieval spell and Draco's wand

leapt from the pocket in his robes into Lucius' out-stretched hand. Lucius turned towards his son and gave him

an icy look. "And was your wand responsible for your abysmal exam results as well?"

"The hexing on the train wasn't my fault. It was Pot..." Draco reached for his wand, but whipped his hand back

with a yelp of pain as his father rapped hard across his knuckles with his cane.