A Different Life

Lucius Malfoy tore Draco's letter in his anger. "How dare he act this way!" he raged.

"What happened to Draco?" asked Narcissa. As an afterthought, she added, "And where's Dobby?"

"Draco ran away!" snapped Lucius. "He wants nothing more to do with us! As for that wretched elf, our blasted boy set him free and since he no longer had to obey us, gladly helped Draco escape."

"Well, what do we do know?" asked Narcissa. "Bring Draco home and teach him a lesson so he'll behave properly?"

"And have our marriage dissolved?" demanded Lucius. "I suspect that Draco went to live with the Girl-Who-Lived and her adopted parents, because he wrote that if we tried to take him away, Sirius Black would exercise his power as Head of the Black family and dissolve my marriage with you, Narcissa."

"Oh dear, I don't want that happening," said Narcissa. Right now, her love of her husband and disgust at Draco's actions took precedence over the love she had for her wayward son. "Fine then, we can disown Draco and not acknowledge him. We can always have another child to become the perfect Malfoy heir." With that, she got up and left the room.

Lucius decided to vent out his anger by composing and sending a Howler to Draco. The last thing he really wanted was to make his son happy by granting his wish and disowning him, but Lucius didn't want his marriage dissolved. So he compromised with a Howler.

The next morning, an owl swooped in the open window and left a scarlet envelope on the breakfast table. Natalia instantly picked up Kate and Chris and left the kitchen for the living room. She put up a Silencing Charm so the twins wouldn't be deafened by the Howler. Beth, Draco, and Sirius covered their ears, but they still heard Lucius Malfoy's voice shout, "DRACO, YOU ARE A COMPLETE DISGRACE AND I AM UTTERLY DISGUSTED BY YOU. YOUR WISH TO BE DISOWNED IS GRANTED, FOR I HAVE NO DESIRE TO WASTE TIME TRYING TO BRING YOU TO HEEL OR HAVING MY MARRIAGE DISSOLVED. IN ANY CASE, I NO LONGER ACKNOWLEDGE YOU AS MY SON, AND I DO NOT WISH TO SEE YOU AGAIN OR HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH YOU FURTHER. IF YOU DO CONTACT ME, THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE DIRE, FOR I WILL PUNISH YOU SEVERELY! AND SEE TO IT THAT YOU CONTINUE NOT USING THE MALFOY NAME!"

The Howler then burst into flames and resulted in a small pile of ashes. "What a git," muttered Sirius angrily. "I want to hex Lucius Malfoy right this minute, but he'd try to get me in trouble for it and I don't want to have to deal with that."

Beth swept the ashes in the rubbish bin. "Maybe you should go ahead and dissolve the marriage, Sirius."

"You will do no such thing, Sirius," said Natalia, coming in with the twins. "And Beth, you shouldn't have suggested it. I'm sure Lucius and Narcissa are happy together and wouldn't appreciate having their marriage dissolved. And as long as they don't try to do anything to Draco or seriously do anything to us, they are going to stay happily married."

"But it'd serve them right!" protested Sirius. "Lucius can't treat Draco like that!"

"But Narcissa hasn't done anything actively to Draco," said Natalia in a tone that brooked no argument, "So we are going to leave the Malfoys to themselves and have nothing more to do with them. Draco, tomorrow we'll see about getting your name legally changed to Black. And if you want, we can also legally adopt you."

"Can we hold off the adoption for awhile?" asked Beth suddenly. "It would be great to have Drake be my brother, but if we become siblings, we can't exactly ever date in the future."

Sirius knocked over his mostly empty cup and stared at Beth. "Okay, I do not want to ever think about my goddaughter and adoptive daughter ever dating."

"Well, you can't keep her locked up until she's of age and forbid her from dating," said Natalia mildly. "My father tried to do that and it only made me sneak around behind his back. That may be partially why I dated you while at Hogwarts."

Sirius choked. "I'm not saying that Beth can't - I mean, I just don't want to think about it!" He pushed away his chair and left the kitchen, completely losing his appetite.

"I don't mind putting off adoption," said Draco in a tiny voice. Lately, he had realized that either Beth or Susan had the potential to be more than just friends in a couple of years. If he became Beth's adoptive brother, than any chance of a relationship beyond friend and sister with her was impossible. Even though they weren't blood relatives, a relationship between adoptive siblings was still considered incest by most people.

"All right then," said Natalia. "Hurry up and finish your breakfast."

At ten, Beth, Hermione, and Draco Flooed to Susan's house, bringing with them their summer homework. Ron and Neville arrived a few minutes after them and the Junior Marauders spent until lunchtime working on their summer homework together. After lunch, they relaxed and had fun until it was time for them to return to their respective homes for dinner.

The next morning, Draco filled out papers changing his name and Sirius and Natalia filled out ones making them his guardians, but not formally adopting him. They papers were then filed and everything was made legal.

On Saturday, Evanna went with Beth to the Weasleys and was introduced to Ginny. The two girls spent the afternoon together and had a great deal of fun. When time came for them to leave, the two had decided that they were best friends and made arrangements to spend more time together.

In the evening, Beth and Draco came home to find Sirius and Natalia looking very anxious. "What's the matter?" asked Draco.

"Dobby informed us of a plot Lucius is planning," responded Natalia. "Apparently Lucius has something that belonged to Voldemort when he wasn't the Dark Lord and wants to plant it on someone to cause trouble at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, Dobby doesn't know what the object is, and all he knows is that a student will get the object."

"We have informed Dumbledore about it and he'll keep an eye out for anything odd," said Sirius.

Draco sighed. "And knowing my ex-father, the something odd will be dangerous. We really don't need a repeat of last year."

"We'll get through it," said Beth. "Just like we got through last year. And Dumbledore will be extra careful, so maybe it'll be nipped in the bud as soon as it starts."

Dobby appeared. "Dinner is ready, Mr. and Mrs. Black." He had started by calling them master and mistress, but Sirius and Natalia didn't like it. As they couldn't get Dobby to call them by their first names, they had settled for Mr. and Mrs. Black instead.

"Thank you, Dobby," said Natalia getting up. "Could you please check and make sure the twins are still asleep?"

"Yes, Mrs. Black," said Dobby, bowing. He then disappeared to the nursery.

After dinner, Beth and Draco went upstairs and wrote to their friends about the plot. Hermione wrote back that she'd instantly start looking through her books on information. Susan and Ron expressed their shock and Neville said he'd check the family library for information and ask his grandmother to let them come over and help him.

After that, Beth and Draco finished their History of Magic essay, watched a program on the telly, and then went to bed.