Hufflepuff Draco: Loyalty and Lies

"Did you drop him on the stairs?" Lucius shouted, scowling as he paced across the dining room.

"What?"

"Don't be a dunce, Narcissa. I mean Draco. He must have bust his head up as a mewling infant."

Narcissa blushed.

"The boy is an embarrassment. Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle all had their kids sorted into Slytherin, despite what they hid from them. The apple shouldn't fall this far from the tree." Lucius glared at Narcissa.

"Don't accuse me," Narcissa said softly. "If you had wanted a paternity spell, you could have gotten one years ago.

"It's a pain to have to act so much every time he comes home," Lucius said as he stormed out of the room.

Narcissa summoned a red and green muggle scarf from her coat rack and went outside, just as the chauffeur pulled in, with her cute-as-a-button son in tow. It didn't matter that he had fallen on his head as an infant; in fact, she loved him all the more for it. After all, only the part of his brain he inherited from Lucius had been damaged.

"Hi Mom," Draco said shyly, turning his face away from her as he climbed out of the limo. His voice was higher than usual, and he was rubbing at his eyes.

"Sweetie, Merry Christmas. Are you feeling okay?"

Draco rubbed his sleeve across his nose one last time before finally turning to look at her. Instead of sadness, anger poured from his eyes.

"Conniving, sly, self-centered bullies. They're the ones who aren't okay."

"Slytherins?" his mother asked, remembering her housemates' antics.

"Bloody Griffindors. Hannah yelled at me after they turned her into a canary. She thought it was my fault."

"It's all right, sweetie; you set her straight, didn't you?"

"She wouldn't even give me the present she had bought for me...she just stormed out, just like that, Mom."

Lucius' boots clicked on the tile as he approached the elaborate Malfoy driveway. His walking- stick, held off the ground, seemed like a weapon to Draco, even though he had never been beaten.

"Greetings, little Draconis," Lucius said, with a cold smile. "Welcome to your humble home. Do be careful on the stairs."

Later, thinking back to those words, Draco was terrified of the stairs. He was looking for a booby trap with every step, especially since this was the stairwell he had seen Lucius come down half an hour before. "Death Eaters," he thought, imagining literal skeletons in Lucius' closets.

Quietly, slowly, he kept moving down, leaning against the wall, his heart pounding. He almost thought it was his imagination, or his own voice, when he heard, out loud, the phrase he had been repeating over and over in his head.

"...Death Eaters. Death Eater numbers are rising in the Ministry...in all branches. Lucius, your election is almost ensured."

Draco gasped. His left foot, which was a little clumsy, fumbled on the stairs. He clawed at the stones of the wall, and muffled his scream as he fell. Hopefully it had been quiet enough...easily ascribed to an accident in the kitchen. A dropped pan. A house elf fallen out of a cupboard, with minor injuries. Or...or...

Draco limped up the stairs, trying to run. He had heard footsteps.

"How apropos to see you, little Draco," Lucius said, with one too-cold hand resting on his shoulder. I was just telling my friend Parkinson about the...unfortunate...situation at the ministry. Such a shame that the Death Eaters have obtained so much control."

"Yes..." Draco said, wide-eyed and surprised. Could he dare to hope?

"And I'm afraid you have bad news of the same sort in Hogwarts, Draco."

Draco thought of Gregory Goyle.

"Well?"

"Yes, father. Yes we do."

"There are those that are known to fight that sort of thing. You've heard of the Potter boy, I presume?" Lucius cast a contemptuous glance at his son.

"Of course I have. Everyone's heard of Potter." Draco paused, a little angry. "He's in Gryffindor."

"Be sure to let me in on all his plans. In our great fight against the Death Eaters, we must all work together."

Draco looked at his father, studying the stiff smile locked on his mouth, and the gleam in his eye.

"Of course, father."

He felt like Lucius' eyes were drilling into him with every step he took on the stairs. Nervous, he stumbled once more, his knees landing hard on the steps.

With an laugh, Lucius passed him there, and shut the door at the top of the stairwell.