Lucius Malfoy's Favorite Charity

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways..."

(The Ministry of Magic's) main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches and wizards up an' down the country...everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems."

both quotes from PS (American SS)

For more descriptions and some photos of places named (such as the White Horse at Uffington and the Cerne Abbas Giant), see the web site for "mysteriousbritain.co.uk"

"Thank you" to somigliana for beta-ing!

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Lucius Malfoy met with Healer Thompson about Richard's primary schooling. The Healer was far more relaxed than he had been at their first meeting, and Lucius had taken off his gloves to accept tea.

He got right to the point. "What kind of an education are he and the others getting with a teacher who is ill at least one week a month?"

"He's getting a good one," the Healer answered earnestly. "School is year round, so the times that the teacher's absent is like having the summer holidays, only spread across the year. The children aren't allowed to have time to forget what they've learned, and they seem the better for it. The teacher lives here at the hospital too, so schooling goes on practically all the time he's well. You've seen the regular group of students here; it's a small class, mostly Healers' and staff members' children, so there's lots of personal attention."

"But is Richard going to be ready for Hogwarts?" His grey eyes flashed.

Healer Thompson smiled. "Of course! St. Mungo's students are almost always at the tops of the classes there. And as for now, thanks in part to you coming here and reading to them, Richard's classmates were reading by the time they were five, and from there they've been getting everything else. You've read the fine quality of the boy's writing, and the good scores in math. I'd say the only thing lacking with our little school here are field trips. Everyone is so busy here, that no one has enough free time to plan good quality ones, let alone get them out of the hospital."

Lucius took the hint. For the times that Professor Lupin was indisposed, he and a few parents and off-duty staff members took the children via Portkeys out to the English countryside and coasts.

The best way to transport the dozen or so children and extra adults was by Portkey. All Portkey uses had to be registered and scheduled at the Ministry of Magic. Lucius became a regular visitor there, and often found himself pressed to take a few Ministry children with him on the field trips. Ministry personnel were also able to advise him on what activities would be most interesting, who would be the most effective tour guides, and where to set the wards to keep Muggles away. All of this was to his advantage, as it led to his being nominated as a governor for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Even Narcissa was impressed when he eventually received the appointment.

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One of the parents suggested teaching flying lessons, to make it a little easier to get around at some of the field trip sites.

Lucius had hardly been on a broom hardly since his father died, and never since getting married. Flying lacked the dignity required of the senior Malfoy, whoever he may be. But today on the moors, in the unexpectedly large company of Ministry of Magic officials and St. Mungo's personnel and their children, that role required broom riding.

The children were excited; most had not been on brooms, though a few were bragging about knowing how to do dips and barrel turns at high speed. Bragging turned to denials, and then to fists, which were sharply curtailed by the parents. In the end, there were neither dips nor barrel turns, just a number of green-gilled children.

Richard was terrified and clung to Lucius's arms as he tried to keep his balance. They flew a few feet, barely off the ground, and the six-year-old boy was begging to get down.

Matt and his father went a bit higher, a bit further at the boy's insistence, but then when they reached the ground, Matt tumbled off broom and promptly threw up on his father's feet. After more practices, Richard was able to relax and Matt quit throwing up, but neither became comfortable with the transport. Lucius offered to buy the two boys their own brooms, but the offer was declined; Mr. Malfoy had done plenty for the hospital's children, and besides, there was no place in London where the two could practice on their own.

Draco already had a broom, and had taught himself to fly. On the field trips, he flew circles around his father and Richard.

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At the beginning the trips were based on famous landmarks of Britain, with the first taking place at Uffington. There the group examined the White Horse that was cut into the hillside, puzzling for a grand three minutes over the great mystery. Then a couple of the girls trotted around, neighing and tossing their heads, pretending to be horses while the rest rolled down the hill until they were grass-stained and wonderfully exhausted. The troop then headed over to Dragon's Hill for a picnic.

Matt was unusually quiet and walked with Mr. Malfoy. "Mr. Malfoy, why are you walking so slowly? Something wrong with your eyes?"

"Why, Mr. Matthews, it is...just the wind.... I got a piece of grass or dust in my eye." He blinked rapidly and smiled down at the boy. "It's all right. Go on; catch up with your friends. Tell them not to wait for me." By the time he reached the party, all the food was gone, but for a half-eaten biscuit Richard had saved for him, which Lucius gratefully accepted.

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"I'll be poo!" "I'll be pee!" "My turn to go up and watch!"

The day was cold and windy at the Cerne Abbas Giant. The children took turns, laughing and running up and down on the outline of the giant carved on the hillside, and hovering over it on brooms. No lecture was scheduled for that site, thank Merlin.

Healer Matthews and Healer Mathias, husband and wife, were standing near Lucius on a lower field, watching the children wear themselves out. She smirked up at her husband. "Makes you feel a little, ah, insignificant?"

He pulled her into a hug and kissed her, then hand in hand they continued watching the noisy children.

Despite the warming charms he had cast, Lucius felt cold. When the group returned to St. Mungo's, he did not stay for tea.

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On the school group's first trip to Wiltshire to visit Stonehenge, he took them to his house for tea. (Narcissa had taken Draco to London, and the miserable house-elf Dobby had gone with them.) It was actually a relief having the house (almost) to themselves. The Malfoy family had other house-elves that knew their places and were proud to serve the family, and kept the secrets of muddy footprints, broken teacups, messy washrooms, the evidence of a pillow fight in the parlour, and where all the cake went. It was a most satisfying afternoon, and the adults agreed to keep silent about the matter, allowing the visit to become an annual event.

No use upsetting Narcissa.

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On Bonfire Day the students, including Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, got to attend "The Annual Re-enactment of the Plot Against the Parliament". The pageant featured some of the ghosts who were actually there when it happened. Guy Fawkes himself made a rare appearance and chatted with the audience. Mr. Malfoy had made the arrangements for the children to have front row seats, so they all got a good look at him, and then afterwards they went out to watch the fireworks over the River Thames under the new moon.

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Queen Anne Boleyn visited with the group when it came to the Tower of London. When she was introduced to them, she did a curtsy, bowing her head and it dropped off! She deftly caught it in her skirt and flipped it up and it landed back on her neck! She sat with the children for a while and told them about her school days at Beauxbatons. The children then fed the ravens, visited with other ghosts, and shoved each other through the Tower windows.

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One night after a full moon, the group went to Windsor Castle. (Draco had to stay home; Narcissa foolishly thought that a werewolf might still be running loose.) The number of children had more than doubled, as so many Ministry members had added theirs to the lot. The adults were having a hard time herding the children to the scene of one of the goblin wars when one of the children shrieked with delight about seeing a ghost.

It was none other than Herne the Hunter, riding on the back of his giant elk, disappearing in the moonlight, reappearing in the shadow. His crown of a stag's antlered skull gleamed in the dark, his sardonic smile was that of a skull's, and his unblinking eyes were large and rimmed with fire. His tunic was horsehide, and his leggings and boots were of leather, silvered with ghostly blood. He still had his noose around his neck, and it swung as he moved. He dismounted and came over the group.

Lucius was delighted and went forward to greet him, his eyes eagerly taking in every detail, when he noticed the emblem burned onto the front of the tunic.

He stopped, stunned. "Hufflepuff?" he stammered.

"Slytherin," the ghost sneered back, walking through him and making him shiver.

For the rest of the tour, Herne the Hufflepuff Alumnus pointedly ignored him.

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Other places the school group went involving ghosts included a performance at the Theatre Royal Bath at Avon and a Spinney music recital at Sawston Hall in Cambridgeshire. They cheered battle re-enactments at Haydon Ditch (Giants vs. Saxons) and Woodcroft Castle (Cavaliers vs. Roundheads). They also visited various Roman ghosts in Cheshire and saw another re-enactment at Wiltshire (Romans vs. Britons). At Bleaklow Head in Derbyshire, a patrol of Roman soldiers put on a revue for them.

Most of the children agreed that the weirdest ghost was the World War II paratrooper at the Isle of Wights. He came parachuting down from the sky a few times, once or twice, without his head, and somehow seemed to think that the students would be impressed. It was very hard for them to be polite, but they felt that the visit had been ill advertised.

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During his many visits to the Ministry for Portkeys, Lucius was given news he hadn't expected. Receptionist Bertha Jorkins in the Department of Magical Transportation was a fountain of gratuitous information about, of all people, Harry Potter.

"The Obliviators just got back from his primary school," she gossiped. "He's been doing underage, wandless magic left and right. I understand his Muggle relatives are fit to be tied. It will be a miracle if he makes it to his eleventh birthday."

And another time she confidentially told him, "The Obliviators had to go to the Muggles' social services. Someone at the school complained that Harry Potter was being neglected by his relatives, as he's underweight, poorly dressed, and has bruises. He's been needing glasses for a while, I heard, and the relatives were forced to take him to an eye Healer for an exam. And get this: The eye Healer reported them too! With all the bad stuff his relatives have been doing, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he turns out to be a dark wizard. Just what we don't need."

No one was more sorry than Lucius when she was transferred to another part of the Ministry. No one, that is, except for those in the department to where she had transferred.

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Amos Diggory, from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was the guide for a number of field trips. His son Cedric was a year or two older than Richard and Matt, and stompled around wearing dragon hide boots that were a size too big. Lucius found Amos' s field trips to be very educational.

At the tide pools on the coast at Filey Brig in North Yorkshire, the group looked for Murtlaps, ratlike rodents that had a certain fungus growing on their backs. While Potions Master Jeanne Smyth told the children about how the fungus would protect one against most curses and jinxes, Amos told Lucius about how pollutions from Muggles were affecting the creatures. He also told him how the Muggles had driven a local species of benign dragons to extinction as they walked along the huge fossilised bones of a dragon, the North Sea splashing against it.

While flying over the nesting grounds of the Welsh Green dragons, Lucius learned how being under Muggle airplane and jet flight paths were disturbing the animals, and in Scotland, at the feeding grounds of the Herbridean Black dragons, how Muggle tourism land developments were damaging its ecosystem.

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One nighttime field trip had to be especially planned, as it would take place during a full moon. The group was going to spy on Mooncalves making crop circles. Ministry staff member Walden Macnair was assigned to the trip, to deal with any werewolves that might show up. Of all field trips, this was the tensest one. Almost every child from the Ministry of Magic was there, along with many of the parents.

Macnair brought a rifle that frightened the children: The Healers were not pleased.

Matthews took Lucius aside. "Tell him to take the rifle away from here. If he and the rifle are going to stay, then the St. Mungo's school group is leaving," he firmly stated.

"He is here to provide safety to the children," Lucius protested.

"One man with one rifle is not enough. And the rifle is wrong; at the very least it distracts from the purpose of the field trip."

Lucius gave a small smile. "There are werewolves. What do you suggest we do instead?"

He was not expecting the answer he got. Healer Matthews raised his hand and showed him the handgun in it. "Every adult here from St. Mungo's is armed with silver bullets. We are trained, we are practiced, and we are ready to protect the children, but we will not be 'showing off', as the Ministry representative has been tonight. He may be here as your personal guest, but without the rifle or any other firearm. He has not shown any gun safety sense since he's arrived."

Lucius decided quickly in favour of St. Mungo's. Macnair Apparated away with the rifle and came back empty handed, obeying Lucius' request. They both thought of shrinking or concealing the rifle, but Lucius suspected that Healer Matthews would know. It made him uneasy to realize that the Healer would shoot to kill. Werewolves were not the only magical beings that could be done away with a silver bullet.

The group sat on the hilltop and took turns flying the children over the fields, hovering over the oblivious mooncalves. The full moon made the sky almost starless by its brightness, and lit the farms and fields for miles. The children chattered and shivered in the night air, while the adults from St. Mungo's flanked the group, facing outwards, with little quiet glints of silver flashing occasionally. Lucius and Macnair quietly visited as they watched as outsiders, catching up on old times, wondering if and when the Dark Lord would return, and if the Potter boy would indeed be a new dark wizard.

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Healer Matthews took charge of the field trip to Llyn-y-Fan Fach, a lake in Wales. It was a hot summer's day; Richard was nine. Everyone was to come with bathing suits, but Lucius opted out, citing business in Diagon Alley. However, he would come for the minimum amount of time on land. He laughed to see the children frolic in the water, then watched as they had Bubble-Head Charms put on them so they could visit the merpeople that lived in its depths. He conjured the snacks and drinks when they returned, then quickly left for the meeting.

The Death Eaters were regrouping.

Muggles generally came into the wizarding world with their spouses. Most knew their places (no more than three feet away from their spouses), and what was expected of them (keep quiet and tell no one about the wizarding world). Some did not; some stuck out like an American tourist at High Tea, and treated the wizarding world as a freak show, or worse, as if it were some third world country ripe for exploiting. Witches and wizards who made such poor choices in their Muggle mates did not deserve to live, and, in past years, were targets for Death Eaters. The Death Eaters were busy dealing with the various targets when a Mudblood's son interrupted them, forcing them into unemployment.

But now the birthrate of Mudbloods was rising alarmingly. And with Mudbloods came more Muggles and greater threats to the wizarding world.

Mudblood students brought their Muggle family members into Diagon Alley, where the prices of unicorn horns and other commodities were forced up due to the purchases of those who had no appreciation of the "souvenirs" they were buying; such commodities were becoming scarce, affecting the wizarding world's economy and its ability to meet demands. Mudblood students were also polluting the ancient customs and traditions with their Muggle music, clothing, customs, slang, diseases, addictions and generally disrespectful attitudes. Lucius had some investments in Muggle companies, but his were drops in the huge ocean of international commerce. Some parents of Mudbloods had sought to purchase businesses or become "silent partners", further affecting the wizarding world by not remaining silent on how businesses should be conducted. Imagine cheap ballpoint pens in Hogwarts.

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It was July. Lucius waited for news of the Hogwarts letter, trying in vain to keep his anxiety from Narcissa. Richard would be turning eleven, just before school started. What if the letter didn't come, what if Richard was assigned to wait another year, to be in the same class as Draco? What if the letter came from Durmstrang instead, or worse, Beauxbatons, or some other school further away? What had the Dark Lord wanted? What if the owl came to Narcissa first, or if Richard used the Floo and he wasn't here? He chided himself for his insecurities, but worried nonetheless.

Finally the owl did come, but it was a day later when Lucius was able to slip away for a few hours to St. Mungo's.

Richard already had his robes; Matt's mum had taken the boys and Richard's mum to the second hand robe shop at the end of June, and had them altered to allow plenty of growth, meaning that the robes were at least one size too large. Their books were second-hand; Matt's father having taken them to the booksellers the hour the letter arrived. His Potions materials he had earned that summer by doing odd jobs for the hospital's Potions Master, and his wand and school materials had been paid for from the St. Mungo's students' account, to which all the parents (and Lucius) had chipped in. The only job left for Lucius was to take the new students out for ice cream. Pity.

Finally the day came for Richard to take the train. Lucius thought it would be too sentimental to see him off, and spent the first part of the morning trying to ignore the occasion. Finally, ten minutes before the train would pull out, he Apparated to the train station, and stepped immediately away from the Apparition point at the far back of the boarding area.

It was as chaotic as when he had been a student.

Most of the students were on the train, leaning out of the windows. Some were still scrambling to get on. He scanned the crowd of parents for anyone from St. Mungo's but saw no one. The last of the luggage was pulled aboard; more heads were at the windows. The train started to pull away, and there, there was Richard, and Matt, and a few more of the school children, leaning out and waving to their invisible parents. The train picked up speed. Richard looked up, saw him and gave a gleefully frantic wave. Lucius lifted a gloved hand in a returning salute. The boy was gone.

Lucius stepped back to the Apparition point and left the station.

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Next: Why is Mr. Malfoy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?