Raising Albus

Ch 9 Baptisms and the Malfoys Guest

Harry was just back from the little vacation, and rather too well publicized sermon in New York, when he was approached with another concern.

"We have a couple of recordings of Lucius and Draco Malfoy you should listen to," one of the guards told Harry. Recording conversations was another one of those Magic/Muggle things Harry liked. It consisted of a variation of the Extendable Ears connected to a Muggle recorder. Prisoners and their visitors had no idea that their conversations were being recorded. So Harry listened to the recordings.

Lucius asked, "You have the list of teachers?"

Draco replied, "Half of them are dead or in prison, and half of the rest were known supporters of he-who-must-not-be-named."

Lucius insisted, "Those are the ones you want, the known supporters of us true, Pure Bloods."

"I remember a couple of them, Father. They are not nice people."

"I'm not looking for nice. I was too soft on you, and you went to school too soft and too nice."

"So what happens when Scorpius goes to Hogwarts?"

"Who says he is going to Hogwarts? If he and his bride are together he can get her pregnant when they are teens. As soon as she is pregnant and back home I get out of here."

"I still say that is a crazy plan, Father."

"Do what I say, Draco."

"Yes, Father," a dejected Draco replied.

A couple of weeks later Draco had a list of teachers, and went over them with his father.

"She should be there soon, Draco," Lucius insisted.

"I will believe it when I see it," Draco sneered.

"Jezebel is counting on us to succeed, and to train up her great-granddaughter to be a supporter of the Pure Bloods and against all the phony goodness of Potter and his supporters."

"Potter has the upper hand right now," Draco insisted. "I have no great desire to follow their narrow goodness, but I have to appear to play by their narrow rules."

"Why don't you have more children, Draco, if you have your doubts about Scorpius? You never should have let your mother raise him. She's gone soft. You need to get some of those hard teachers in to teach the children that they are better than other children. They need to learn that Malfoy's do not have to follow the rules of lesser people."

"Astoria is not sleeping with me."

"She has a duty to let you," Lucius snarled, giving an obscene gesture. "Take your pleasure with her. It has nothing to do with love and with what she wants."

There was a period of silence. The guard said that Draco was looking pretty uncomfortable after what his father had told him.

"If Scorpius is not the person we need to keep the Malfoy name unsullied by people like Potter and Kingsley then you need another potential heir, Draco," Lucius insisted. "Two thousand years we have been in England, blond northerners. Go to the farm and get a bastard son of mine or yours if you need to. It would not be the first time the Malfoy family had to pass over someone who was not strong enough."

"I can, if I have to," Draco sighed.

"You have no idea of the powers against Potter, Draco. It is up to us to raise Scorpius to be on our side, not on the side of that blasted Potter."

*

Harry asked his staff if anyone knew what Lucius was referring to when he talked about "The Farm." He was finally referred to Kingsley and Kingsley brought Hermione into the discussion. Kingsley explained, "The elite of the Pure Blooded families still have some secrets. We guess there are secret, hidden farms, but we don't really know any more."