Lost Image | dramione

44 | the consequences

"Father!" Draco called out, slamming open the door to the dining room. Sure enough, his father was sitting at the head of the table. He had the evening edition of the Prophet in his hands, not even bothering to look up with his son's outburst.

"Ah, Draco. I see you're feeling well enough for dinner with us..."

"How could you?"

"How could I what?"

Draco walked right up to the man- he was angry, and at the same time he knew his father would never hurt him. The only thing he had to fear from Lucius was being disinherited, and Draco was just frustrated enough to not care.

"You offered her money!?"

Lucius looked at Narcissa as the woman followed her son into the room quietly. He frowned. "You told him?"

"If I didn't, she would have, and he would have been more upset. Besides- you're not ashamed of having done so. Why not tell him?"

Draco whirled on his mother. "You knew he would do this, didn't you?"

"Of course."

Draco grit his teeth, running a hand through his hair. He was verging on furious, now. "Why? If you insulted her, I'd be angry. But this is more an insult to me than anyone, really! You tried to make her just disappear behind my back... you think I wouldn't have guessed? Did you think I wouldn't be angry?"

Lucius calmly folded his newspaper. "Draco, I don't like your tone," he said, his voice at that low, dangerous level he used before he got really angry. "Wouldn't things have been easier on you if she had accepted? As it is... we have few options left that won't require something of a struggle."

"If she was the kind of girl that would accept a bribe from you, then I wouldn't have fallen in love with her in the first place."

He had said it. His father clearly noticed, his eyes narrowing as he started to tap the table with his long fingers in a steady rhythm.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Oh, Draco..." his mother admonished quietly, shaking her head.

"This is a good deal worse than I originally thought... Draco, where are you standing?"

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"What do you...I don't understand..."

"WHERE are you STANDING!?" Lucius asked again, this time throwing the newspaper to the ground as his voice rose to a shocking volume.

Without really meaning to, Draco shrank back, cringing. "Ah... in the dining hall?"

"And where is the dining hall?"

"In, uh, Malfoy Manor."

"See, Narcissa? The boy has some amount of brains left in his head! And, Draco, who built Malfoy Manor?"

"A... Armond Malfoy," Draco had been drilled on such questions since he was little. At one point, he had been so proud to have every ancestor memorized. Then, at some point in his teenage years, he had grown extremely tired of being tested periodically by his father. Now he was certain his father had been saving up this information in order to win this very argument, if it ever were to come up.

"Armond was a Wizard, who made our fortune and started this family's power in Britain. He was a true Wizard, Draco."

"I'm aware."

"His son was also an untainted Wizard. What was his name?"

"Hyperion," Draco muttered, not liking where this conversation was going. His father wasn't the type to have an outburst and let the lecture end. He was going to drag this on.