Learn to Hate

Chapter Three

'Ah, Draco, there you are...'

As Harold Cavendish, the senior partner, gave him his benign smile and waved him into a chair, Draco stiffened warily when he realized that he was the last to join the meeting.

As the meeting followed its normal and predictable course, Draco allowed himself to relax a little and mentally began to run over in his mind who would make the most suitable replacement in his bed.

When the meeting was over, Draco got up to leave, then froze as the senior partner placed a restraining hand on his arm and told him quietly, 'Er, no, Draco. I'd like you to stay. There's something we need to discuss.'

Harold Cavendish waited until the others had gone before beginning to speak. Draco might not be very popular in chambers and Virginia's father might have had to put pressure on them to take Draco on, but there was no doubt whatsoever about the effect he, and his brand of blonde, smooth, good looks had on their female clientele. It wasn't just his own business that Draco had increased while he had been with them, as Harold himself was keenly aware.

Draco always reminded him of a particular breed of German dog, all sleek good looks and power on the outside, but inwardly possessed of an unreliably vicious streak that, when provoked, could be extremely dangerous. His wife had once told him wryly that it was the thought of harnessing and controlling all the sexual power and uncertainty that was Draco that made women behave so foolishly over him.

'It's the knowledge that they're never quite totally in control of him that is so alluring,' she had told him. 'Draco represents the dark and dangerously exciting side of sexual attraction.'

'Chap's a bounder,' he had objected gruffly. 'Look at the way he treats poor Virginia.'

'Yes, I know,' his wife had agreed ruefully, 'and I'm afraid that just makes him all the more potently alluring.'

Harold had shaken his head, not really understanding what she meant, and he was no closer to understanding now just why so many pretty women were foolish enough to get involved with Draco.

Harold waited until Draco had closed the door before telling him uncomfortably, 'Had a chat with Griffin Burton. He, er...seemed to think there could be something unprofessional going on between you and his wife...'

Draco said nothing.

'He's a very powerful man and we handle a lot of his friends' and contacts' work.'

Draco still said nothing, and Harold found himself fighting against a sense of irritation with him that he wasn't doing the decent thing and making things easier for him.

'Fact is, old chap, that to put it bluntly, Burton isn't too happy about the way...'

'His wife's solicitor was instructing me with regard to her divorce,' Draco interrupted him coolly. 'If Griffin Burton chooses to misinterpret that... relationship... then...'

'Well, yes. Yes, of course,' Harold agreed hurriedly. 'But one has to think not just of one's own reputation, you know, but the reputation of the chambers as a whole as well, and if it gets around that... well... if Burton should get it into his head to put word about... The fact is Draco, that we've discussed the subject among ourselves and Jeremy tells us that you've no major work on at the moment, so we think... that is, we feel... it might be a good idea for you to take some extended leave, say a month or so... just until this unpleasantness blows over, and then...'

Draco stared at him in disbelief.

'You're barring me from the chambers,' he accused. 'You can't do that.'

'No. No... of course not,' Harold agreed hurriedly, 'no such thing... no such thing at all. Fact is, old chap, that all of us need to take a decent break from time to time, and young Ginny would probably appreciate the chance to see a bit more of you...'

Draco looked coldly at him. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell him that he didn't give a damn wheat Ginny would appreciate but he managed to restrain himself.

Griffin Burton had certainly managed to put the wind up Harold, he acknowledged bitterly. Pompous old bastard, who was he to tell Draco what he could and couldn't do. Take some extended leave... They couldn't make him, of course, no, no way could they do that, but they could make life pretty unpleasant for him if he refused, Draco admitted angrily. If they chose to do so, they could adopt tactics that ultimately could force him out of chambers, and once that became public knowledge, his chances of continuing to receive not just the fat briefs he had been accustomed to getting, but also the status and accolades that went hand in hand with being a member of such a prestigious set of chambers, would diminish abruptly. There was no way, after the work he had put in, the sacrifices he had made to get where he was, that Draco was ever going to allow himself to be downgraded or side-tracked to somewhere second rate.

As he listened to Harold's pompous meanderings, he told himself fiercely that when the day came when he took over as head of chambers, he would make everyone involved in this pay for what they were doing to him, especially that creep Jeremy Standish, the clerk-cum-office manager, whom Draco knew perfectly well neither liked nor approved of him.

'So you can see, I'm sure, what I mean-' Harold was continuing to waffle uncomfortably '-and like I said, Ginny, I am sure, will...'

Draco had enough, and giving an impatient shrug, he stood up.

'A month...' Draco began, but Harold, suddenly becoming courageous and mindful of his fellow members' urgings and the responsibility he owed them, insisted firmly, 'Two months, Draco. That will give plenty of time for any potential unpleasantness to die down...'

Two months... Draco gave him a hard stare, tempted to argue but sharply aware of how it would make him look if he lost.

God, but Mercedes had truly fucked this up, he fumed half an hour later back in his own small office. And if he had her here right now... he'd... Two months... Just what the hell was he going to do?

As he stared angrily out of his office window, there was a brief rap on the door and Jeremy Standish walked in.

'Ginny was on the phone while you were with Harold.' He told Draco. 'She asked me to remind you that its Liam's nativity play tomorrow afternoon and that her grandfather will be going...'

As Jeremy saw the murderous expression darkening Draco's eyes he couldn't resist adding, mock innocently, 'I'm sure Ginny will be delighted when she knows that you're going to have a couple of months off. You must miss her and the children so much with them living in the country and you living in town...'

Liam's flaming nativity play, that was all he needed, but of course, if he didn't go, her grandfather was bound to start asking awkward questions. Draco still hadn't repaid the loan he had caged off him when he and Ginny had got married- and, in fact, he had no intention of repaying it. Draco had witnessed her grandfather's growing involvement with his own son and already sensed that if he wasn't careful, Liam might begin to usurp his own so-far-unchallenged position as her grandfather's favourite, and there was no way Draco was going to allow that to happen. He was already beginning to think it had been a mistake to allow Ginny to have so much contact with her grandfather and thus easy access to his ear. Not that he had any fear that her grandfather would pay attention to anything she might choose to say. Her grandfather despised women and was an old fashioned chauvinist.

Two flaming months and not even the chance of a fortnight or so in Aspen now to alleviate it. And of course, he would have to tell Ginny, whether he wanted to or not. The last thing he wanted was for her to ring the chambers and find out that he wasn't there- and why. And, in fact, he would have to warn her not to say anything to her parents, either. With any luck he could keep the whole thing pretty quiet. As his brain began to swing into action Draco began to make plans.

Perhaps it might be as well to remind Harold that any hint of his enforced 'holiday' getting out would reflect just as dangerously on the reputation of the rest of the partners as it would on him. Draco might be under no illusion that Griffin Burton's real intention in putting pressure on Harold was to humiliate him, but it would do no harm to overlook that and to point out that on the surface as least, he totally believed that Harold was acting simply out of concern for the chambers as a whole, and since he had no option but to accept the situation, what he needed to do now was to make everyone else believe that taking such a period of leave was his own choice. Perhaps he could earn a few 'brownie' points with Ginny's grandfather and Ginny's family by making out that it was his wife and children that had motivated him, and living in Haslewich at his grandfather's expense would certainly save him money. And of course, he still had women friends in Chester with whom he could alleviate his undoubted boredom.

By the time he had cleared his desk, Draco had almost managed to persuade himself that two months' leave was exactly what he wanted... almost...

*

'The bed's definitely a William and Mary, and when I told him what it was really worth...' Guy Cooke broke off from his description of the furniture he had been asked to value to look keenly at his ex-business partner and to ask gently, 'Molly, what is it, what's wrong? You haven't heard a word of what I've just said.'

'Oh, Guy, I'm sorry,' Molly apologized immediately, giving him a small smile. 'There's nothing really wrong, it's just...'

'Molly, I know when you're happy- and when you're not,' Guy reminded her dryly.

Molly shook her head and admitted, 'It's Nathan, our nephew. His Hogwarts report this time is, well, not very good at all, and Dumbledore has asked to see Arthur about him.'

'What's the problem, do you know?' Guy asked her sympathetically.

'Well, we're not sure, but we think it could possibly be because of Lucien. You know that Nathan and Bill, left school to go and look for Nathan's father...'

'Mmm... Chrissie mentioned it,' Guy acknowledged, referring to his wife, who was in a rather roundabout way, a member of the Weasley family.

'Both Arthur and I have talked to Nathan, and so has Liv, but he seems to have this bee in his bonnet at the moment about Lucien,' Molly told him. 'It's perfectly natural that he should, of course; after all, unlike Liv, he was still really very much a child when Lucien disappeared and he couldn't totally take in the situation. But what's more worrying is that Fleur seems to think that Nathan is actually blaming himself in some way for Lucien's disappearance.'

'Blaming himself...' Guy gave her a sharp look. 'Why on earth should he do that?'

Molly shook her head. 'I don't know. We've both tried to talk to him about it, but he's at that age...' She gave a small sigh. 'We've all always been so close, and we thought he was happy living with us, but now we're both beginning to question whether or not we did the right thing and whether he might ultimately have been happier going to Brighton with Vicky.'

'I shouldn't have any concerns about that,' Guy interrupter her firmly. 'I certainly know who I'd prefer.'

Molly gave him a wan smile. 'Vicky is his mother,' she reminded him. 'Even if Liv says that in her opinion Nathan has been far better off with us.'

'Liv should know, she is Nathan's sister.'

'Yes, I know, and we've been through the whole history of Lucien's disappearance with Nathan and explained to him about the... the problems that had arisen here with Voldemort.'

'It can't have been easy for you,' Guy commented. 'I can still remember just what you and Arthur went though at the time.'

'It was a shock, especially for Arthur when he found out that his twin had been working as a double agent for the Dark Lord. And once Dumbledore and the remainder of the Order had realized we had enough time to turn him around. But now, the Death Eaters are still after him.'

'Liv, Arthur and I have explained to Nathan just what the situation was. While, legally, his father is free to return to this country if he should want to do so, there could be no question of him ever being hunted down by Voldemort's followers.'

'I know it's an issue that we would have had to deal with at one stage, but I just wish that it hadn't manifested itself right now when Nathan is working towards his NEWTs.'

'Mmm... What's Nathan planning to do after, which college?'

'We had talked and thought he wanted to follow family tradition and become an Auror into the practice. There's a very close bond between them, but just recently... I know all teenagers go through a turbulent period, but it seems lately that Nathan really resents us both, but particularly Arthur. His behaviour is hurting Arthur, although he never says anything.'

'Mmm.... I expect he's concerned that he might be related to a second Draco, although...' He stopped when he saw Molly's expression and asked, 'Is that what Arthur thinks, Molly?'

'Not exactly, but he has said recently that he wonders if he's adequate father material. He blames himself for the fact that Percy is as he is. He always has don, and I feel the same way- that we both failed him. Wee can't help wondering if there was something we could have done, something we missed or some...' She paused and shook her head. 'Nathan is nowhere near being like Percy, or Draco for that matter, of course, but Arthur is beginning to feel that somehow or other he must have failed him- Nathan's become so abstracted, so withdrawn just recently, and of course you always worry that... about...'

'Drugs,' Guy supplied shrewdly for her.

'Well. One reads such things,' Molly admitted, 'and although we're only a relatively quiet small country town, we're not that far from Manchester or... and it is Hogwarts break...'

'I know what you're saying,' Guy agreed. Then he added quietly, 'I could put a few feelers out for you if you want me to...'

Guy's family, the Cookes, were involved in every aspect of Haslewich life, including some which were not strictly ethical or honourable.

There was a local story that the Cookes had once included in their number a member of the Gypsy band that had travelled through the area, and it was from this alliance that the family had inherited their strikingly dark tangled curls and good looks.

Molly hesitated. The headmaster had recently alerted all the parents at Hogwarts to the fact that drugs were being sold outside the school gates, despite the Ministry's attempts to put a stop to it. She had no reason to suspect Nathan was taking them, and she was pretty sure that Nathan's recent change in behaviour and attitude was because of his confused emotions about his father.

'I wouldn't want Nathan to think that we didn't trust him,' she told Guy slowly. 'Arthur's worried that Nathan might feel that, as our nephew, eh comes second place to Joss, which isn't the case at all. We love all our children very dearly, although of course in different ways, and because Arthur was himself always aware that in his father's eyes he could never compare to Lucien, Arthur is determined that Nathan won't suffer in the way that he did.'

'It's a very difficult situation,' Guy acknowledged.

'Arthur hates having to take anyone to task,' Molly told him ruefully, 'but it is so important Nathan works hard and gets good grades when he sits his NEWTS.'

'I saw Draco driving into town earlier,' Guy told her.

Molly forced a small smile.

'Oh, did you? Good. Ginny will be pleased. She was afraid that he might miss Liam's first performance in the play school Christmas play,' she told him with a smile.

She wasn't smiling ten minutes later, however, as she hurried back to her car, pitting her body against the cold of the sharp east wind. Ginny had confided in her only a few days ago that she was concerned about Liam's growing antagonism towards his father.

'Gramps think I'm overcoddling Liam, but I've tried to explain to him that it's because he doesn't see very much of Draco and Draco isn't... Draco doesn't...'

Ginny's voice had trailed off, but she hadn't needed to explain. Molly knew exactly what her son in law was and wasn't. Charlie spent more time with, and was far closed, to his small nephew than his father, and Arthur, too, made sure that he gave his small grandson as much attention as he could.

*

Ginny wasn't there when Draco arrived at Queensmead. She had gone out to do some shopping, taking both children with her. The rich sent of greenery and fruit she had used to make the Christmas garlands that decorated the hallway and stairs, as well as the warmth of the seasonal colours against the mellow patina of the panelling, might have caused another man to stop and savour not just the seasonal spirit they evoked but also the quiet skill of the woman who had made them, but Draco gave his wife's handiwork no more than a brief, cursory frown as he headed for the stairs. Before he could climbed them, his grandfather's study door opened and the older man limped painfully into the hallway, his austere expression giving way to a warm smile as he saw his favourite grandchild.

'Draco,' he exclaimed eagerly. 'You're back. Come and have a drink with me.'

Draco watched the way his grandfather's hand trembled as he poured them both a Scotch. He was aging rapidly, his once-tall, ramrod-straight frame now spare and bent, his walk betraying the wariness of someone who had lost the security of being able to depend on his own physical strength.

'Ginny's gone out shopping,' he told Draco. 'Why on earth do women need to make such a fuss about Christmas? You'd think Ginny was going to be feeding an army from the way she's been carrying on. She hasn't even had time to change my library books for me this week,' he added with the petulant selfishness of the elderly. 'And she forgot to make my nightcap last night.

'Come over here,' he instructed Draco abruptly. 'There's something I want to show you.'

Frowning, Draco followed him, watching as he struggled with the lock on the drawer of his desk before removing a card, which he thrust in front of Draco.

'It's from Lucien,' he told Draco tersely. 'It came yesterday. It's post-marked Jamaica...'

'Jamaica...' Draco's frown deepened. The last they had heard of Lucien was that he was somewhere in Spain, but that had been more than a year ago, and despite all his own father in law's attempts to do so, he had not been able to trace the whereabouts of his twin brother.

'I knew he wasn't in Spain, told Arthur so, too, but he wouldn't listen,' he could hear his grandfather complaining.

'It's time he came home, Draco. I want him home. This is where his place is. This is where he would be if that damned woman hadn't driven him away.'

It was no secret to Draco that his grandfather blamed, Victoria, nick named Vicky, Lucien's estranged wife, for his son's disappearance, claiming to anyone who would listen that it had been Victoria's unstable temperament and the eating disorder she suffered from, along with her dangerous mood swings and her extravagant life-style, that had prompted Lucien's near fatal heart attack and then caused him to disappear.

Draco frowned as he studied the postcard his grandfather had handed him, not really paying much attention to what the older man was saying. After all, he had heard it all before, and if it had not been second nature to him to keep his grandfathers good side, he would have lost no time in cynically pointing out that there were far easier ways of removing an unwanted wife from one's life than to flee the country.

Even so, he couldn't resist saying jibingly, 'Well, Uncle Lucien has nothing to fear from Vicky now that she's got a new man in her life.'

'Exactly,' his grandfather pounced. 'I want Lucien found and I want him to come home before...' he stopped, wincing as he started to massage his aching hip.

'Dad's already made several attempts to trace him,' Draco pointed out uninterestedly, 'and...'

'Using detective agencies. Pah... useless... Arthur should fly out to Jamaica himself, and if he had any real brotherly love for Lucien... But then of course, he's always been jealous of Lucien and I...

'I'd go myself if it wasn't for this damned hip,' he told Draco angrily. 'Damned if I wouldn't. I know Lucien... he's my son... my flesh... my blood...'

Listening to him, Draco forbore to point out that so was his father in law, but then Bastian certainly did not know Arthur, and what he knew of Lucien was only what he had allowed himself to know... what he wanted to believe Lucien to be rather than what he actually was.

Jamaica... Draco dropped the card onto the table, where it lay face up, white sands gleaming under an impossibly blue sky and an even bluer sea... Jamaica...

His body suddenly stiffened.

'If you really want someone to go and look for Uncle Lucien, I suppose I could fly out there and do a bit of checking up, look around...' he began, pseudo-hesitantly.

'You!'

The delight in the old man's voice might have touched the heart of any other man, but Draco refused to allow anything, anyone, to touch his, and he simply, instead, gave him a calculated smile.

'But how can you?' his grandfather protested shakily. 'Your work...'

Draco shrugged carelessly.

'As it happens, things are pretty slack at the moment, and I have been thinking of taking a few weeks' leave. I may as well spend some of it in Jamaica as here under Ginny's feet...'

'You mean you really would go, Draco?'

Draco watched dispassionately as his grandfather fought to control his emotions, coming over him and grasping his shoulders as he blinked rapidly and told him huskily, 'I knew I could rely on you, Draco. You're your uncle Lucien all over again. He wants to come home, I know he does. Once he knows that that unhinged woman isn't going to make a nuisance of herself... My God, just let her try. She's already caused enough damage. When I think...'

'It's going to be an expensive trip,' Draco warned him, ignoring his comments about Vicky. 'And...'

'That doesn't matter,' his grandfather assured him.

'Jamaica's a fair sized island, and there's no saying whereabouts Lucien might be,' Draco pointed out- or even if he would still be there, Draco acknowledged, but he kept that thought to himself. A few weeks in Jamaica at his grandfather's expense was exactly what he needed right now. Smiling to himself, he mentally thanked Harold. Who knew, he might even be able to pick up some potential new clients while he was out there.

Finding Lucien was, of course, another matter entirely and not one he was inclined to give any serious thought to. After all, if his uncle genuinely wanted to return home, there was absolutely nothing to stop him from doing so.

Silently he studied his grandfather. Did he really honestly believe what he was saying; that the only reason Lucien had left- disappeared- was because his marriage had broken down? Well, if so, it was no business of his to enlighten him, but the old man really must be losing his grip.

'Draco, you don't know how much this means to me, my boy,' he heard Bastian telling him gruffly. 'I should have known I could rely on you. Your father in law...' He stopped and shook his head. 'It's always been a disappointment to me that Arthur doesn't... that he isn't.... he doesn't know how lucky he is to have a brother like Lucien,' he finished heavily. 'I lost my twin brother...'

Draco looked impatiently at his watch.

'Look Gramps,' he interrupted, cutting across the old man's all to familiar reminiscences, 'If I'm going to Jamaica, I should make a few phone calls. It's not going to be easy getting an international Apparition point at such short notice at this time of year. Half of Belgravia and Sloane Square will be flying out there on the first Apparition points out of Heathrow after the New Year, and then I'll have to get myself sorted out with a hotel.'

Given the choice, Draco would have infinitely preferred to ignore the Christmas and New Year celebrations at Haslewich completely, of course, and taken the first flight he could to the Caribbean, but he knew that not even Ginny would wear that one.

'Yes, yes of course,' his grandfather agreed.

'And... I think we should keep this thing just between the two of us for now,' Draco told his grandfather smoothly. 'As you've said, Dad doesn't seem to be too keen on having Lucien home and...'

'Yes. Yes, you're right,' his grandfather conceded.

Draco smiled confidently at him. The old boy was amazingly easy to manipulate once you knew which buttons to press. The one marked 'Lucien' was always a dead cert. Contemptuously, Draco wondered why his own father in law didn't press it a little bit more often. There was no way that he, Draco, would allow the old man to patronize him and put him down, comparing him unfavourably to others the way Bastian did with Arthur. No way at all, and it irritated Draco that Arthur would do so. After all, his father could be stiff necked and stubborn enough when it suited him, and Draco already knew that the news that he was going to Jamaica to look for Lucien would not be received well in his parents' household- for a variety of reasons.

The last thing Arthur would want was for Lucien to be found and encouraged to come home. Not because, as Bastian seemed so deluded to believe, Arthur was jealous of his twin. Draco knew that Arthur wouldn't welcome the complications and hassles that would arise with having Lucien and all the potential problems surrounding his fraudulent behaviour back on his doorstep.

In his father in law's shoes, Draco knew that he would have lost no time at all in informing Bastian of just what his precious son had done. But, Arthur, to Draco's disgust, had gone to inordinate lengths to protect his father from discovering the truth about his favourite.

Lucien wouldn't come back to Haslewich, of course, and Draco knew full well that it was extremely unlikely that he would even be able to find him- not that he intended to try very hard! A leisurely month or so relaxing in the sun was more the kind of thing he had in mind. He would pay some local agency to make a few general inquiries, of course, just to keep Gramps happy.

He would wait until after Christmas to break the news to Ginny that he was going to Jamaica. That way, there was no risk of him coming under family pressure or disapproval and no risk either of his father or anyone else bending Bastian's ear to try to make him change his mind.

*

'Oh, Ginny, he looks so sweet.'

Ginny turned to give Molly a rueful, watery smile before they both turned back towards the stage where Liam was giving his first public performance in the play school nativity play as one of the 'shepherds.'

The sturdy house tame lamb, born late in the year and abandoned by her mother to be hand-reared in the kitchen of a local farm, decided that it was time she had some attention and playfully butted Liam.

Manfully he grabbed hold of her collar commanding, with the same intonation he had heard his aunt Liv using to the pretty golden retriever puppy that was the latest addition to her household, 'Sit...'

Even Bastian, seated at the other side of Molly, had given an appreciative bark of laughter, and as Molly told Ginny mirthfully later when the audience had stopped laughing, Liam had most definitely stolen the show.

Draco, on Ginny's other side, gave his son a dispassionate, contemptuous look. The child irritated him. Surely he realized that sheep did not 'sit.'

Liam was beginning to annoy Draco. The boy had actually dared to stand in the doorway to Draco and Ginny's bedroom the last time Draco had come home, glaring belligerently at him and refusing to allow Draco to enter.

'Make him move,' he had told Ginny softly, without breaking eye contact with Liam, 'because if you don't...'

When the parents went backstage to collect their offspring, it was Arthur whom Liam ran excitedly to once the play was over, flinging himself into his grandfather's arms and then burrowing his face in Arthur's neck as Arthur swung him up off the floor.

There was something about one's grandchildren that made them so infinitely special and precious; Arthur acknowledged as he kissed the little boy and ruffled his hair.

Arthur had no way of explaining to himself why it was so easy for him to love Liam, when it had been so hard for him to love and accept Draco. Liam was Draco's son; you couldn't look at him without knowing that. Physically he looked exactly as Draco had looked at the same age, but temperamentally, emotionally...

It made Arthur's heart ache with compassion for Liam and anger against Draco, to see the way that Draco treated his son. It was no wonder that Liam now refused to go near him. Ginny was very loyal and never criticized Draco, but Arthur had seen the pain in her eyes as she watched Draco ignoring Liam, turning his back on him and deliberately showing the child how little he cared about him.

Initially, when Liam had been born, Arthur had forced himself to stand back, to remind himself that he was Liam's grandfather and not his father, but then he had watched Charlie play with him, seen the bond growing between uncle and child, seen the way Draco was threatening to damage his son emotionally by rejecting him, and he had made himself a vow that for as long as Liam needed him in his life, he was going to be there for him.

Arthur knew already, without knowing how he knew, that it would be Liam who one day would take his place in the family business, that Liam, like him, would be the Weasley who wanted to stay close to the place that had bred him, that Liam would be his kind of Weasley, just as Nathan had also been showing signs of wanting to come into the family firm.

Nathan... Arthur started to frown slightly as he thought about his nephew. He had believed that Nathan was happy with them, that he had accepted his father's disappearance, but these last few months... Dumbledore had warned them that if Nathan's work did not improve, there was no way he was going to get the OWLS the needed to go onto tertiary education. Arthur had discussed the subject with Nathan, but far from being concerned, Nathan had merely told him truculently that he didn't care- that he'd changed his mind, that he didn't want to be a solicitor after all.

'Then what do you want to be?' Arthur had asked him exasperatedly. It would be some years down the line before Nathan could possibly join the family practice so could not relieve the pressure that both he and Liv were experiencing currently with so many new cases coming into the Haslewich office. Liv had joined Arthur a few years before and now they were considering taking on a third partner because they were both having to work a lot of extra hours. But that particular route, bringing someone from outside the family, hadn't appealed to either of them. And as if work wasn't enough of a worry, Arthur and Molly were both concerned about Ginny and how she and the two children were being affected by the fact that Draco spent so little time with them.

'She's such a lovely girl. She deserves so much better,' Molly had protested the last time they had discussed their daughter's marriage. 'I feel so helpless to do anything, though. Every time I try to raise the subject, she fobs me off. She's happy here in Haslewich, she says she likes looking after Gramps. She loves Queensmead, and there's no doubt that she's turned it into a proper home, but she's living the king of life that's more suited to some Victorian great-aunt than a young woman, and I'm afraid... It's so unfair, Arthur, she's got a lot to give. I know it's a dreadful thing to say, but I really wish that she could meet someone else, someone who would value her and love her...'

That was as close either of them had come to acknowledging that Draco did not love his wife, but then, why discuss something that was so painfully obvious to everyone who witnessed it.

If Ginny did ever decide to leave Draco and make a new life for herself, somewhere else, he would lose the special closeness he had with Liam, Arthur acknowledged, and he would hate that.

'I love you, Arthur,' Liam whispered tremulously to him now, as though he had picked up on his grandfather's thoughts.

Arthur hugged him. Just very occasionally when he was feeling especially emotional, Liam referred to him as 'Arthur.' The rest of the time he called him Grampy.

On the other side of the room, where he had been deliberately flirting with the nursery class's pretty young teacher, Draco suddenly frowned as he watched the interlay between his son and his father.

What was Arthur doing holding Liam like that, as though he was his child, and Liam, what was Liam doing looking as Arthur as though... Ignoring the pretty teacher's mock shy response to his sexual innuendo, Draco strode across the room, firmly taking hold of Liam and swinging down to the floor as he commanded curtly, 'Liam, stop acting like a baby.'

The combination of being wrenched away from Arthur and the frightening presence of his father caused Liam to tense and scream protestingly in Draco's hold.

'Go away, I don't like you,' he told Draco loudly, causing one or two of the near by parents to stare.

Draco looked coldly at his son. No one was allowed to tell Draco that they didn't like him.

'It's time Liam went him,' Draco told Ginny coldly over his shoulder. 'He's behaving badly.'

Ginny shook her head urgently at Liam. There was to be a celebration tea for the children served in the hall just as soon as she and the other working helpers had got everything ready, and Ginny knew how much Liam had been looking forward to this treat. He had talked of it for days, and only yesterday he and Ginny had made special little caked for the party while he practised the three short sentences he had to say in the play.

Ginny's heart ached for him as she saw the expression in his eyes as he watched his father.

Another mother, another woman, would no doubt have coaxed and protested 'Draco... no... you know how much he's been looking forward to the party,' but Ginny knew that anything she might try to say or do to alleviate the situation would only make things worse. She could see from Draco's expression that there was no way he was going to back down, and she knew, too, that there was something in Draco that gave him pleasure in denying his child his enjoyment. She had no idea what it was that had warped Draco's character so badly and made him the man he was, nor, she suspected, did anyone else. He could not have better or more loving parents through Ginny... but Molly had intimated to her that Draco had always been a difficult child... some children were... of course his parents didn't help.

'Take him away, Ginny,' Draco reiterated acidly.

Heavy hearted, Ginny started to reach for her son, but before she could take him, Charlie suddenly appeared, coming between her and Draco, sweeping Liam up into his arms and tossing him playfully in the air before calmly walking away with him still in his arms, apparently unaware of the fact that Draco was commanding him to stop.

'Oh, Draco, how lovely to see you. Ginny wasn't sure you were going to make it...'

As she heard the purring voice of the town's most predatory bachelor, Ginny heaved a thankful sigh of relief, quickly making her own escape. Barbara would, no doubt, keep Draco engaged in conversation for as long as she could.

In the room that had been set on one side for the party, Charlie was playing with Liam.

Between them, Charlie and Arthur were supplying Liam with all the right kind of male role modelling any mother could want for her son, all the right kind of male values, so why, why, did she yearn for Draco to pick up his son and look at him with that same look of love and pride she could see in Arthur's eyes when he held his grandson?

'Draco will never be able to love anyone else until he learns to love and accept himself,' Haramis had once told her, but for once Ginny had felt that the wise family matriarch had been wrong. Draco did love himself. Draco would always love himself- and never love anyone else?

Quickly, Ginny went and picked up Jade, holding her tightly in her arms while she watched Liam playing with two of his small classmates.

Ten minutes later, when she walked back into the other room, Draco had gone, and so, too, had Barabara Severn.