Narcissa Malfoy paced back and forth, wringing her hands together, an apprehensive look frozen across her pale and pointed face. She was worried. She had sent the note at least a quarter of an hour since, and unless Lucius or Draco had splinched themselves, Apparition should never take this long.
They should be here by now. What’s keeping them?
Time passed as Narcissa paced the living room of the Malfoy residence. Suddenly there was a loud crack from outside, followed by another loud crack straight afterwards. Grabbing her wand Narcissa ran to the front door and passed through it, standing outside the house were Lucius and Draco.
They certainly looked worse for wear, Lucius was bleeding from a wound on his head, Draco had a split lip and his eye was puffy and swollen.
“Oh my god! What on earth happened to you two?” Narcissa asked anxiously, throwing herself into Lucius’ arms.
Draco gave a small cough; bringing up blood as he did so, he winced in pain as he brought a hand to his ribs. Narcissa released Lucius and began tending to Draco’s wounds but he pushed her away. “I’m fine, mother, see to father instead.”
Narcissa turned back to Lucius to see him leaning against a nearby tree to hold himself upright. She hurried over to him. “What happened?”
Lucius let out a groan and slid down the tree towards the ground. Narcissa quickly whipped out her wand and pointed it at the large gash at the back of Lucius’ head; bandages flew out of her wand and bound themselves tightly around Lucius’ wound, stopping the flow of blood.
With Narcissa’s help Lucius was able to pull himself to his feet and finally managed to answer her question. “We ran into some Ministry of Magic workers. Blast that Diggory!”
Narcissa gasped, “How did they know…”
Lucius cut her off, “…That we were there? They didn’t. It turns out that the cave we were living in used to belong to a troll. The wizards had come up to investigate it, and found us there instead.” Lucius cast a look of pure loathing at Draco, who was still coughing up blood.
Draco caught his father’s gaze, “Don’t look at me like that. How was I to know that it belonged to a troll? Last time I was there it was just an empty cave. I imagine a troll moved in when I was in Azkaban!”
Lucius opened his mouth to argue back when his eye fell upon the Malfoy house. “Narcissa, what has happened to my house?”
Narcissa looked up at the house, and it was then that she appreciated how run down it had become. Tiles hung off the roof, the paint was peeling from the walls, windows were broken. It was a far cry from the elegant place it had been before Lucius went to Azkaban.
“The Ministry happened Lucius,” Narcissa spoke, looking back to her husband. “Ever since you have been locked away they have conducted regular searches of this place, looking for any dark material that may still be found here. The times I have told Arthur Weasley to leave this place alone.”
“Weasley!” Lucius snarled. “I might have known, that disgrace of a wizard. Oh I bet he thought he had hit the jackpot when I went to Azkaban.”
“He certainly had a smug look on his face when he came here.” Narcissa said her voice edged with disgust. “When the Ministry discovered that you and Draco had escaped Azkaban, they came around here looking for you, and they completely ripped the place apart. I’ve been doing the best I can just to keep it liveable. Its not been easy.”
Lucius looked at his wife and smiled, he wiped a tear from her eye that had been threatening to fall as she told him the tale of her plight. “At least its still home. And it’s far better than a cave. Come, let us go inside.” And they turned and walked towards the house, pushing open the battered, peeling front door.
Draco headed to the house after them, “I think I preferred the cave.” He muttered under his breath.
As the Malfoys walked around the dilapidated remains of their once beautiful home Draco decided to make his feelings known. “This is all Potters fault.” Lucius and Narcissa both jumped a little, they forgotten that Draco was there. His voice crackled with pure hatred as he continued to speak. “It’s his fault. He got you arrested. He put me in Azkaban. He defeated the Dark Lord, it’s all his fault.”
Lucius turned to face his son, “Draco, you must learn to put grudges behind you. Potter was not the one who came to this house and tore it to pieces, no, we have Arthur Weasley to thank for that.”
Draco scoffed, “You can talk about grudges, father. You’ve had it in for Arthur Weasley for as long as I can remember.”
Narcissa looked between the two men, “I have to say that I agree with Draco. Wait, Lucius, and hear me out.” She said quickly, noticing the look on her husbands face. “Despite the fact that it was Arthur Weasley who left our house in this state. It can all be traced back to Potter. If he had not caused you to be captured at the Department of Mysteries than you would not have gone to Azkaban, and Arthur Weasley would never have been able to come here.”
“Be that as it may. Potter is not a safe or sensible target. He is too unpredictable. We do not know where he is. What he is doing. Nor do we have any way to draw him out. Draco, calm down.” Lucius said as he watched Draco pace back and forth, his fists clenched. “Potter has always managed to defeat you Draco. He has now had an extra years training, whereas you did not even sit your exams. Potter could easily beat you again. You’ll need my help to stand a chance, and I don’t think going after Potter is a good idea. If Potter dies it will draw too much attention to us, we need to lay low until the uproar surrounding our escape has died down.”
“So you just want to sit here, in our broken down home and wait? Whilst Potter gets even stronger?”
“As I’ve just said Draco, we have no way of drawing him out. We do not know where he is!”
Draco whipped out his wand and pointed it at Lucius “I’ll make you do it. Don’t force me to use this”.
Lucius calmly pulled out his own wand and pointed it at Draco “Don’t do this, Draco. I might be a broken down old man in your eyes, but I’m still the wizard I always was.”
Draco snorted, “I’m twice the wizard you ever were!”
Just as Lucius was about to response Draco suddenly whirled around and pointed his wand into the corner of the room where a figure lurked, unnoticed until that moment.
“Draco, NO!” shrieked Narcissa.
“Incarcerous!”
Thin ropes shot from the end of Draco’s wand and tied themselves around the figure, who fell to the floor, thrashing about and cursing at the top of his voice.
Narcissa waved her own wand and the ropes disappeared and the figure got back to his feet and walked into the light.
Lucius and Draco couldn’t believe their eyes at the sight of the small man in who now stood in front of them.
“Pettigrew?” Lucius said in bewilderment “Peter Pettigrew, what on earth are you doing in my house?”
“Nice to see you too Lucius” Pettigrew smirked “Caught me by surprise there, Draco. I see you haven’t lost your touch.”
“Of course not”
Narcissa could feel the tension in the air and moved so that she was standing between her husband, son and Pettigrew. Unsure of what was to happen, she began to speak.
“Lucius, Draco, Peter here has been helping me, he’s the reason I was able to break you out of Azkaban. He’s the person who’s going to help us destroy Harry Potter.”
Draco looked up expectedly Pettigrew knows where Potter is?He thought.
“Really, and how is he going to do that?” Lucius questioned, sarcasm dripping in his voice.
“If you’ll be quiet a minute, I’ll tell you.” Pettigrew spoke, with a hint of anger in his tone.
“Don’t you tell me to…”
“Shut up, father! Let him speak, if he knows how to get to Potter I for one want to hear what he has to say.” Interrupted Draco.
Lucius was stung by this latest outburst from his son, he opened his mouth to argue back, but decided against it and instead waited for Pettigrew to talk again.
When he was satisfied that he had silence, Pettigrew began to address the Malfoys.
“That’s better, now with no interruptions if you please. I will tell you what I know. When Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord. I wasn’t present; the Dark Lord had sent me away in disgust for failing to prevent the destruction of his Horcruxes. Since that day, I’ve been on the run. As you know, I can disguise myself most effectively.”
Pettigrew stopped and took a breath before continuing.
“After a year on the run, I encountered a young wizard from the Ministry. I saw my opportunity. I stunned him, and kept him alive under the Imperius curse, I sent him into the Ministry of Magic to carry out his duties as usual. After a month of doing this, the Polyjuice potion I was preparing has matured, and was ready for use, so I took some of the wizards hair and took on his identity. For the past few three months I have been working in the Ministry and Magic, and have built a friendship with one Percy Weasley.”
Pettigrew looked around impressively, when he saw that he was not getting the reaction he had hoped for, he cleared his throat and carried on.
“Using my friendship with Weasley I was able to learn about Azkaban. I was able to learn that Harry Potter would be teaching at Hogwarts for three days a month while my old friend Remus is off work with his condition. I pushed Weasley for information about Potter, what he was doing these days, who he was friends with. Weasley told me that Potter was training as an Auror, and that Peter Pettigrew was the wizard he was most anxious to catch. Weasley also mentioned to me that his family was worried about Ginny Weasley, and that she wasn’t the same since the night the Dark Lord was defeated. I questioned him about this, and he shared with me the information that Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter were once deeply in love. He also confided in me his suspicions that Ginny Weasley was still in love with Harry Potter.”
Draco’s eyes widened at this news The Weasley girl loves Potter?He suddenly had a very good idea.
Pettigrew continued “I came to Narcissa with the information, and we plotted together to break you out of Azkaban. I used my connections within the Ministry to make sure that the most inept guards happened to be working when Narcissa came to visit.”
Narcissa then spoke, “If it wasn’t for Peter here, I would never have been able to break you out of Azkaban, without his help, we would never have found out Potter’s weakness.”
“Ginny Weasley.” Draco said, with disgust in his voice, “If her life was in danger Potter would be drawn out to save her. I know Potter, he wouldn’t let her go, if he had loved her once, he loves her still. If she were to perish, if he were unable to save her. It would send him over the edge, he’d come in search of us, he’d be weakened by grief. He would be easy prey. What do you think father?”
They all turned to look at Lucius, who was pacing back and forth, apparently thinking. Meeting their eyes he spoke his answer “We better get ready. We’re going back to school.”
A/N - Thats it for Chapter 8 - Please R n R, Chapter 9 coming soon! Thanks to Orlaith, the most fantabulous beta ever!