Lucifer

    Evadne finished her pumpkin juice, abandoned the toast she'd been nibbling, and headed off to the library. She had a couple hours before her first class on Mondays.

    Halfway there she felt nauseated, and dashed for the nearest loo. Holding onto the commode, a truly unpleasant thought wound its way into her mind. For the last six weeks she'd been nauseated every morning. Tireder than usual. And her regular-as-clockwork monthlies hadn't happened.

    Instead of going to the library, she turned the other way, and went to see Madam Pickering.

    She left the Infirmary in a daze. Mid-December. Congratulations, they'd be wanting to get married when school finished next month, then, wouldn't they?

    She wandered toward her room, and it was only when he said her name twice that she realized it was Lucius she'd walked into. She looked at him, and burst into tears. "Oh, come now," he said, and handed her a handkerchief, walking her into his bedroom.and sitting her on the bed. "Now what's the matter?" he said, holding her hand.

    "I....Lucius, I'm pregnant," she said, looking at him in distress.

    "I....see, " he said, and she felt his hand go stiff for a moment. He stood and walked over to the other side of the room, staring at his bookcase. "Well," he said. "I suppose arrangements must be made."

    "Yes...I wasn't intending to get married right out of school, but...."

    And then she fell silent, because he was shaking his head. "What ever gave you the impression that I would marry you?" he said, with incredulity. "You are nothing! No blood, no money, no influence."

    "I'm the mother of your child!"

    "And as such my family will make you an allowance for its maintenance and schooling. Blood is blood.That will be protected. Or if you prefer you may give over the child once it is born and we will see it cared for."

    "But what will I do?" she said softly, staring at him in disbelief.

    "What you do isn't my concern,' he said, and his voice was cold. "Will you accept the arrangements the Malfoys make?"

    "I don't want arrangements, I want you!"

    "You can't have me, you idiot," he said. "I have a lot of things to do before I get married. And then I'll pick out a proper pureblooded girl to bear my heir."

    "I'm not going to go away, Lucius!"

    "I see, " he said. "Then I will. This is the way it's done. Either take it, or don't, but it's over."

    She began crying again. "I loved you!"

    He rolled his eyes. "Then you were a fool and an idiot."

    "And your parents will be SO thrilled, won't they, if I show up on their doorstep," she pushed. His back went rigid. And then he opened a desk drawer and took out an envelope.

    "Oh, you won't do anything like that, Evadne."

    "What's going to stop me?"

    "This." He handed her the envelope, and saw her pale as she looked at the first picture. He took them from her limp hand.

    "You bastard," she said, tonelessly. "Valentine's Day. The potion. Missing time. You set me up, you prick!"

    "I have things to do and they don't involve me having a Mudblood hanging on my arm. You know and I know that child's mine. The smart thing to do is to accept an offer from the family, and go on with life. But if you want to play that way...my parents won't pay for the baby of someone who hard evidence shows was the Slytherin bike. It's up to you whether they find that out or not."

    Evadne's eyes blazed. "You think you have me in a corner, don't you. I think I have you in a corner. Paternity tests are a simple matter, and I just bet the newspapers would LOVE to hear about this." She smiled and said, "And now, I've got classes. I"ll talk to you Saturday, after you get done playing. Do enjoy your final game, hm?"

    The door slammed behind her, and Lucius considered his options. Finally, he turned and reached for a book in his bookcase. It read on the spine, "Advanced Transfiguration" and looked battered. He tapped it with his wand and said, "Non cedit umbra soli" and the book shimmered in his hand and changed. The book as revealed had nothing on the spine or cover, but it was bound in an odd looking skin. He opened it and began leafing through pages of handwritten notes, before pausing. Then, he reached for a piece of parchment and a quill, and began writing.

    To my most esteemed mother, greetings....

* * *

    Libitina Malfoy, a tall fair woman with ice blue eyes, turned from her notes to see a house elf, looking at her timorously and holding a sealed letter at the doorway to her workroom. "Begging your pardon, madam, but is from Master Lucius and says is urgent, and is sealed with blood seal."

    "I do wonder," she said, speculatively, and held out a hand for the letter. "I'll take tea in the green salon, Dobby."

    It nodded and vanished, and she looked at it, then smiled. "That serious, my son?" she said aloud, and pricked her finger with a gesture. Tracing a pattern upon the seal with her bloody finger, she said, "Non cedit umbra soli" and then murmured a healing spell as the letter opened, shimmering as the words formed themselves.

    To my most esteemed mother, greetings from her son.

    I have encountered a minor difficulty in preparing a potion. I possess the wormwood, the tansy, and the black rose petals. However, it also requires the fresh eyes of an amphisbaena, and getting that without notice will be slightly more difficult under the circumstances. I did offer the girl the usual alternatives, but she thinks herself worth a Malfoy and so other steps must be taken.

    Sincerely,

    Lucius Etienne Malfoy

    She sighed and shook her head. "Really, Lucius. I do wish you'd left girls alone a bit longer....this is an unnecessary complication. Still, you are handling it like a man, so I'll assist you."

    Libitina Beauvais Malfoy folded the letter and walked out of her lab, thinking about how to manage this little trick. Ah, the cuff links he bought and left behind... an enchantment for clear thinking just in time for his NEWTS....

    "Mail, Lucius," said Adrian, and Lucius caught a package as it fell. He smiled. "Ah, from my mother. I wonder what she's sent me?"

    He tapped the box with his wand and the packaging unraveled to reveal a small box. He smiled. "Oh, they're done," he said, and opened it. Adrian and Terry craned to see, and gasped. The cuff links inside were silver, set with a stone that shifted like mother of pearl but visibly gave off magic.

    "Those are amazing," Gil said. "What spells are on them?"

    "Clear vision, aid in concentration. They're for doing my NEWTS, " said Lucius, smiling. Several others crowded around to see, and he graciously passed the box around.

    "Aren't you worried these will twig the classroom wards?" Terry asked.

    "They're not illegal. They don't enhance my knowledge, just keep me from panicking and forgetting what I know," Lucius said, and the others nodded as he took the box back from Gus Rookwood.

    "I'll go put these up, " he said. "And then I'll be with you guys for Potions."

    Once in his room, Lucius set the box down and tranfigured a quill on his desk into a stiletto. He pricked one finger, let three drops of blood fall onto the box, and then said, "Arbitrii mihi iura mei," and watched the box shimmer and transform. Then, when it was done, he healed his hand, set the quill back to normal, and tapped the box. It opened and inside lay two gelatinous bloody masses, in a spell field that held them suspended out of time so they would not decay or dissolve. He smiled, and shut the box. He took a box out from under his bed and removed a small cauldron, whch a word raised to a normal size. Then, he put the contents of the box into it, and reshrunk it and replaced it. That done, he transfigured the box back to a jewel case, and took his cuff links out and put them into a box in his trunk, before heading off to class, brow unclouded. The eyes would dissolve in the potion over six hours, after which it would be ready to drink. And his problem would be solved.

    Evadne finally shoved her notes away and rubbed her eyes.

    "Going to stop for supper?" said Arthur. He looked as tired as she did. Revising was something everyone at the table took seriously, and at least three of them had NEWTs starting tomorrow.

    "I'm going to put this stuff back in my room and go on down," she said, smiling tiredly at him. "Thanks, Arthur, you've been a big help. I think I'm prepared."

    "Any time," he said. He looked at her again and said, "Is everything okay? You've been acting strangely the last couple of weeks."

    "Oh, yeah," she said. "I'm just tired. And Lucius and I had a big fight last week and...well, it's over."

    "I'm sorry, Evvie," Arthur said. She looked at him, and realized, despite the fights they'd had over Malfoy, he meant it. She smiled at him, and took his hand and squeezed it.

    "I'll be all right....but thanks. We'll have to get together when our NEWTS are over," she said.

    "Molly will want to come," he said, and Evadne laughed.

    "I'd love to meet her. We can invite all the swots, and have fun."

    "Great," said Arthur, "It's a date, then. "

    "Yeah. I"ll see you later, I'm starving," she said, and left the library.

     It was near supper time, and she was embarassingly hungry. But the light and the noise in the Great Hall was giving her a headache, and it was all she could do to drink her pumpkin juice. She was nearly blind with the pain, and grateful that Lucius was ignoring her in favor of an intense tactical debate with the other members of the Quidditch team regarding strategy for the upcoming Cup match. Instead, Adrian Mulciber had gotten her a fresh glass and cleaned up the mess when she had spilt her juice. Headaches always made her clumsy. She paused in the hall outside the common room, leaning against the cool stone. It felt very, very good. Her stomach lurched, and she sighed, inwardly. Oh, one of these. Bloody hell. The last thing she needed was one of the full-on sick headaches, with NEWTs tomorrow.

    "Are you okay, Evadne?" a voice said. It was one of the girls, Rita.

    "Just a headache...I'll go get a potion or something...."

    "You're white and sweating," Rita said doubtfully. "Shouldn't you go to Madam Pickering?"

    "Nothing she can do I can't do here, " said Evadne. "Darkness, silence, and rest, and I've got medicine to take the edge off it."

    "You can hardly walk," said Rita firmly. "I'll go fetch you something. I get them too."

    "Thanks," whispered Evadne. She collapsed on her bed and pulled the curtains shut and tried to breathe shallowly against the nausea. It didn't work, and she ran to the bathroom just before it hit. She rested there, leaning against the toilet, and managed to get back to her bed by the time Rita pulled her newly blond head out of her trunk with a vial in hand.. Rita put her head in. "Here's the....Oh, that won't work. Not if you're already vomiting and seeing double. You just drink this and go sleep it off," she said, taking in Evadne's pale face and shaking hands and exchanging the vial of medicine Evadne had for another one. It tasted foul. The ones good for you always did. But she did feel the godawful spinning receding, and she fell into sleep gratefully.

    She awoke in the night with pain ripping her gut, hot with fever, and she cried out, and couldn't stop sobbing. It hurts, it hurts, oh, God, blood. I"m losing it. Someone pulled her curtains aside. "What's wrong, Evadne...Oh, God!" Rita gasped, and Evadne heard running feet and a door slam before the pain grabbed her again. And then she wasn't thinking any more. It hurt too much.