Rating:
G
House:
The Dark Arts
Characters:
Lucius Malfoy
Genres:
Drama Angst
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets
Stats:
Published: 05/13/2003
Updated: 05/13/2003
Words: 4,122
Chapters: 1
Hits: 305

Time to Think

PeterMurray

Story Summary:
A story of Lucius Malfoy\\\'s parents, Mondis and Giulia, from their first meeting to their being parted by death, via a wedding, a talk with Tom, betrayal by Lucius and the fall of Voldemort.

Posted:
05/13/2003
Hits:
305
Author's Note:
Thanks to Anne for beta-reading this story.

Time to Think


November 4th, 1981

Mondis sat, grieving, in his chair and thought again about those long-ago days, both at Hogwarts and after. He had time to think, and little else now to do while he waited for the end, for his own death.

*

September 1st, 1922

'Difiorenzi, Giulia,' read Professor Augustin from the scroll he was holding. Giulia walked nervously towards the stool, picked up the hat, sat down and put the hat on. It announced, 'SLYTHERIN!'

Giulia smiled, put the hat back on the stool, and hurried over to join the Slytherin table, guided by the pupils there applauding each new Slytherin. Professor Augustin, Head of that house and Deputy Headmaster, smiled at her as she passed him.

When everyone had been sorted, Mondis and the other older pupils introduced themselves to the new first-years and started to get to know them.

'No,' Giulia replied to a question about her name, 'I'm not Italian, and I don't even speak any. But my ancestors were from Italy, and my family gives everyone Italian names. Father and Mother both came here, and they were in Slytherin, too.'

Mondis smiled at her. 'Well, welcome to Hogwarts, Giulia,' he said. 'My name is Mondis Malfoy, and I'm a second year.'

'Hello.'

'Giulia, are you a pure-blood?' asked another first-year.

'Yes, I am. Why are you asking me that?'

Mondis answered for him, 'You don't actually have to be, but lots of us are. Salazar Slytherin himself preferred pure-bloods and half-bloods, and hated Muggle-borns.'

*

September 1st, 1926

It was Mondis' sixth year at Hogwarts, and the sixth Sorting Feast he'd been to, but now it had ended, and well-fed pupils, tired from their journey on the Hogwarts Express, were heading for their dormitories for some sleep. The first-years were being guided there by the new fifth-year Prefects, but Mondis had hurried down to the Slytherin common room, to make sure he got there before Giulia. When she arrived in the common room, he grabbed her hand, and she turned to face him. He half-pulled, half-guided her over to a quiet part of the common room, and faced her. He hadn't let go of her hand. He was hoping that this term, their friendship might progress into something more.

'Giulia,' he said softly. 'A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.'

'Mondis, I'm really tired from the train journey. Let go of me.'

'There's a nice comfortable room a few doors along the corridor. Very private, and charmed so that nobody can enter once we close the door behind us. We could rest there -- together.'

Giulia blushed, and tried to pull her hand away. 'No! How dare you! I just want to go to bed now!'

Mondis grinned at her. 'So do I. That's exactly my plan, in fact.'

Giulia managed to pull her hand away from him. 'No!' she snapped. People were looking at them, and she asked more quietly, 'What makes you think I'd agree to that?'

He leered at her. 'I'm a Prefect. I could give you detention.'

'Do that, and I tell Professor Augustin.'

Mondis blinked. 'Giulia, can't you tell when I'm joking?'

'I've heard a lot of stories about Prefects abusing their power like that. I did hope you were joking, I just wasn't sure.'

'I wouldn't ... I'd never use blackmail or anything to force you to go to bed with me. I thought you knew that I wouldn't.'

'I hoped you wouldn't. I've read a lot about your ancestors over the holidays, though.'

'They weren't a pleasant bunch,' he admitted. 'I know there was the general attitude that they could take whatever they wanted and then buy their way out of any trouble. My father wants to redeem our family name, though; he brought me up to be more polite. Perhaps I was just too forward today.'

'Oh, you were. There's no "perhaps",' she agreed. 'Now I'm going to my dorm, and you are not going to follow me.' She turned, and almost ran to the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitories.

Mondis sank into one of the armchairs. He'd completely misjudged her mood. At the Feast, she must have been just being friendly to him, and he'd clumsily mistaken that for flirting. When she kissed him last term, before getting off the train, that must just have been friendship -- he should never have dwelt on it over the summer as he had done. How could he have been so stupid? He'd moved too fast, and forever repulsed her, forever shattered any hope he'd had that they might ever have something more than friendship. He wondered if an apology in the morning would help.

*

October 31st, 1926

It had been a good Hallowe'en Feast, and the evening promised to get better. Despite his 'romantic' clumsiness after the Sorting Feast, Giulia had forgiven him, to his surprise -- and pleasure. Now Mondis and Giulia were walking hand-in-hand through the dungeon corridors, but they'd taken a different turn, which would allow them to approach the common room from the other side, if that was where they had been going now.

They had a different room in mind though. That morning, Mondis had checked the room he'd discovered the previous term, and found it empty. He'd put his own Locking Charm on it, and hoped that it still would be locked and empty.

They reached the room, which was, reassuringly, still locked. A bend in the corridor meant that they couldn't be seen by the crowd entering the common room, which would avoid much of the gossip that would otherwise ensue. Mondis looked at Giulia, unlocked the room and opened the door for her.

'It does look nice and comfortable,' she said as he followed her in. The door closed, locking itself from anyone outside. Inside the room there were a large, comfortable-looking bed and a sofa covered in cushions.

'Yes,' he said, sitting on the sofa.

'What do you usually do next?' she asked, sitting at the other end of the sofa.

'Usually -- what do you mean?' A thought struck him. 'I've only ever looked in here. Did you think I'd brought other girls here before you?'

'Oh. Most of our Prefects do seem to have that sort of reputation,' she said.

'I might have, but it's baseless,' he told her. 'I've never ... well, I've never actually ...'

'You've never slept with any girl?'

'Whatever rumours say, no, I haven't. After botching it last time I asked you here, I was going to take it slowly and just sit and talk.'

They did, talking for hours and didn't return to the common room until after midnight. There was hardly anyone still there, and most of them had just fallen asleep where they were. Mondis and Giulia smiled at each other, and went up the separate staircases to their dormitories. Love could wait while they strengthened their friendship.

*

August 20th, 1933

Mondis stood at the doorway, looking out. It was a beautiful day, though he'd have said that on this particular day even if it had been raining. Today was a day that even other people could confidently describe as beautiful. He looked up, searching for even the slightest hint of a speck flying towards the church. There! He could see the flying carpet now, bringing the happy bride-to-be and her parents to the church. One of the ushers tapped him on the arm, and reminded Mondis that tradition said that he was supposed to be waiting at the altar for his bride, not standing in the church doorway as if worried she wouldn't turn up.

The Difiorenzi family had been very reluctant to give their consent to the marriage, knowing the reputation of the Malfoys, but he and Giulia had finally convinced them he wasn't like those ancestors.

Mondis walked up the aisle towards the altar, then stood there waiting for Giulia and her bridesmaids to enter the church and reach the altar. He was wearing his best dress robes, of a green so dark it seemed almost black, highlighted with silver thread which formed the letter M at intervals.

Giulia reached the altar and returned his smile. She was wearing white dress robes and veil, with an emerald necklace, a Malfoy family heirloom traditionally worn by brides at their weddings. The ceremony seemed to take forever, but at last the priest said, 'You may kiss the bride,' and they kissed for the first time as husband and wife. It really was a beautiful day for them both.

*

December 24th, 1940

Life was going well. The Malfoy estate was flourishing, the Muggle war was having little effect on the school or on his estate, and the recent retirement of old Perceval Augustin had meant two positions at Hogwarts had become vacant. Mondis himself had been appointed the new Head of Slytherin house, while his friend Albus Dumbledore was now the Deputy Headmaster.

Albus and Mondis' shared awareness of the menace posed by Grindelwald had brought them together, and Albus had praised Mondis' work helping to oppose him. Perhaps one day he might even manage to help Albus to defeat the dark wizard. For now, Grindelwald had been forced to retreat, and there was peace and time to relax. Albus recommended Mondis to Dippet as a Dark Arts teacher, based on his work against Grindelwald. Although the heir to the Malfoy estate hardly needed a job for the money, Mondis liked the feeling that he was contributing something to wizarding society.

It was Christmas Eve, and Mondis was in his office, having tea and cakes with one of the Slytherins, who had chosen to stay at the school rather than return to his orphanage for the holiday.

'So, Tom, how do you like it here at Hogwarts?'

'Oh, it's great. I can only compare it with the orphanage, and everyone else there is a Muggle, so this is the only place I can be myself,' said the third-year boy enthusiastically.

'You're certainly making the most of it -- I see that you're top in every class.'

Tom smiled, a little embarrassed. Mondis wondered how he'd react to being told that Albus considered him to be the most brilliant pupil in the school's history. After more than two years at Hogwarts, Tom still kept himself very much to himself, and Mondis was hoping to get him to open up more. Now that he was the boy's Head of house, perhaps Tom might talk to him about himself, although Perceval had never managed to get him to do so.

'Have you considered what you might do when you leave here?'

'Leave?' Tom echoed in surprise. 'Oh, sorry -- when I've finished the seventh year?'

'Yes. I don't really know much about you, and I wondered if you'd thought that far ahead. I wanted to talk to you -- as I said, you're top in every class, and of course you're also having to stay here over Christmas.'

'That's no hardship,' said Tom. 'As I said, here I can be myself, and not have to pretend to be a Muggle. If my mother had lived, I'd have been brought up knowing what I was. But she didn't.' There was no sadness in his voice, only bitterness.

'Then you grew up not knowing anything about wizardry, just as if you'd been a Muggle-born?'

'I'm not Muggle-born!' Tom said indignantly.

'I didn't say you were. I just meant you didn't know about your background, your abilities, or what your future might hold.'

'Oh. Sorry. I over-reacted.'

'I know that Salazar Slytherin didn't consider Muggle-borns worth teaching at this school, but don't you think our world needs them? Without them, we'd have long since died out.'

'That might be true, but I don't think their lack of knowledge of our traditions helps us. They dilute our knowledge, and I don't see them contributing much in return.'

Mondis forebore from pointing out Tom's own lack of such knowledge, due to his upbringing, and the conversation turned to more general subjects. Tom had said he hadn't really thought ahead to his seventh year yet, he wanted to see where his strengths lay, but perhaps the Ministry of Magic would be a good choice. Apart from that, Mondis felt he still knew almost nothing about the boy. He shrugged. Christmas Eve was a time for family, not work, so he locked his office and returned to his quarters to be with Giulia for the rest of the day.

*

February 14th, 1944

Giulia held the baby in her arms, gazing at his sleeping form as if fascinated. Mondis sat watching his wife, enjoying the pleasure in her expression. Her expression said that it had all been worth it -- the heartaches, the two miscarriages, the illnesses -- all of it was now past, and almost forgotten. The child was the light of their life, which was why they had chosen the name Lucius for him. Mondis, like his father before him, would bring his son up with respect for others, even half-bloods and Muggle-borns. Lucius would continue the work of redeeming the Malfoy name, making it a name the family could be proud to bear, not the reviled name Mondis' grandfather and great-grandfather had made of it.

*

June 30th, 1956

'Father, is it true there's a Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts?'

Mondis looked up from his reading. There was a note in Lucius' voice which troubled him, an excitement that sounded too enthusiastic. He told himself that it was natural for a twelve-year-old boy to be interested in secret chambers and passages.

'Yes, there is. It was opened about a year before your birth. Why do you ask?'

'Some boys at school were talking about it. They said that Slytherin left an immortal monster in it, and only his Heir can release it to attack Mudbloods.'

'The word is Muggle-borns!' snapped Mondis. 'Never use that word again!'

'Fine, it kills Muggle-borns then. Are we Slytherin's heirs? Can we get into it?'

'No, we are not, and we cannot. Nor does anyone know for certain where it is.'

'Somebody must know,' Lucius pointed out obstinately. 'Even if you didn't open it, someone did, and he must know where it is. Or is it a girl?'

'Nobody knows for certain who opened it,' Mondis said carefully. Albus had his suspicions, but it wouldn't do to tell people about them. His insistence on the Hagrid boy's innocence looked likely to cost him the Headmaster's post at Hogwarts when Professor Dippet retired. Neither Dippet nor the board of governors thought much of Albus' opinions.

'Someone was expelled though. It must have been them that opened it.'

'The expulsion was based on circumstantial evidence. Despite the death of a girl at the school, the suspect was never charged with murder, as there was no evidence for it.' Mondis had taught Hagrid Defence against the Dark Arts, just as he was now teaching Lucius that subject. He was quite certain that Hagrid, although an enthusiastic and good-hearted pupil, could never have discovered how to open the Chamber, and equally certain that Hagrid's father was not descended from Slytherin. If his mother was a descendant of Slytherin, then clearly purity of blood had meant less to Slytherin himself, or to an earlier Heir, than history claimed.

'You're not going to tell me, are you?' asked Lucius, visibly disappointed.

'It's not something you should worry about. I hope it will never again be opened.'

*

August 12th, 1968

Mondis sat in his study, watching Giulia drawing views of the centaur and human skulls on his desk, as a comparison between the two. The drawing would illustrate his latest paper for the Proceedings of the Society Magical. Now that he had retired from teaching, he was able to concentrate on his hobby.

A handclap behind him told him that Lucius had entered the study, and was as impatient as usual. Mondis turned to face his twenty-four-year-old son. Now that Mondis had signed the document giving Lucius the legal ownership of the estate, he was finding Lucius to be increasingly obnoxious. His hope, and Lucius' claim, was that the estate, together with his forthcoming marriage to Narcissa, would keep him too busy to have the time to follow the Riddle boy. The attraction of having even more time to work on his hobby had also appealed to Mondis, but he couldn't help suspecting that his son was still involved with Riddle's plans.

'Things are changing around here,' said Lucius. 'You two are no longer needed.'

Before Mondis or Giulia could protest, Lucius' friends Crabbe and Goyle appeared behind him, both with their wands pointed at the couple. 'Stupefy!'

*

August 30th, 1968

Mondis and Giulia sat in one of the suite of rooms that was now their comfortable prison, numbed by what they'd heard. The house-elf, Bandy, had just left. They had thanked her, grateful for her attempt to bring some news. Mondis had always treated the family's various elves with kindness, ever since childhood. His son, apparently, was less considerate, frequently threatening Bandy and forcing her to inflict pointless punishments on herself. Lucius was not following Mondis' example, but rather the bad example set by Mondis' grandfather and earlier Malfoys.

Bandy should not have left the Manor, shouldn't have followed the cortege to the cemetery, and certainly should not have reported back to him on the nature of the funeral service, and the guests that were there. He had convinced her that she did not need to punish herself for disobeying his son, because her loyalties had once been to Mondis and Giulia. If only they could convince her to release them -- but she viewed that idea as a definite betrayal of her new master.

Lucius had staged a funeral for both of his parents. Bandy had brought them the copy of the Daily Prophet with the funeral announcement. They had clung to faint hopes of rescue, but those hopes had fled on seeing that announcement. Who would even think of rescuing them, now that they were officially dead and buried? They'd been imprisoned for only two weeks, too short a time for people to be suspicious. Lucius had planned this too well; now that he was running the estate, and Mondis had retired, his parents had often gone for longer than a week without visiting friends or being visited. Their deaths had been announced a week ago -- due, Lucius had claimed, to an accident with a charm that his father had been trying to develop for a paper he was writing. Albus had been at the funeral, mourning for Mondis and Giulia, as he had done for so many of his former pupils over the decades. The world now thought that both of them were dead. This wing of Malfoy Manor was seldom used, and they could not expect any visitors to the mansion to be accommodated near him.

He tried to derive what little satisfaction he could from the thought that Lucius had sent his almost-finished paper on the comparative anatomies of humans and centaurs to the Society Magical, and that it would be printed as his last work, but he looked into Giulia's eyes and knew that it was really no consolation at all. He and Giulia hugged. At least they were together, still.

*

October 28th, 1981

Mondis sat helplessly by Giulia's side. He knew some healing spells, but they would be of no use now, even if Lucius hadn't taken away their wands. Spells could heal broken bones, cure or protect against illness or nourish a starved body until the patient was able to take normal food again. But those weren't why Giulia was weakening. Nor was it her age -- being seventy years old was hardly old age for a witch. She was simply dying, having lost all will to live following her son's final betrayal of her and her husband the previous year. The rooms were still comfortable, and the new house-elf saw to it that the couple had enough to eat, and were generally cared for as well as ever, but what use was all of that now? Giulia was dying. Lucius had been told, but didn't care enough even to visit his mother in her dying hours.

Their daughter-in-law, Narcissa, might not even know what was happening -- she was, in any case, being kept busy with her young son, Draco. Lucius had brought the baby into this part of the Manor only once, shortly after the boy's birth the previous year. Giulia had been delighted that he'd shown them that much consideration, until he told them that he would bring Draco up as a loyal follower of 'the Dark Lord'. He'd gone into needlessly elaborate detail about Riddle burning the Dark Mark into his arm, just as he would do to Draco when he was older. Lucius seemed almost to take it as a personal insult that Mondis had taught Defence against the Dark Arts to Riddle. Mondis wondered then if Draco, in his turn, would betray Lucius, just as Lucius had betrayed him. He almost hoped he would -- Draco was the Malfoys' last chance to redeem their name, and if he followed Riddle as his father had done, the family line would end in Azkaban or death at the wands of Aurors.

That had been the last straw for Giulia. The news that not only the son she had brought into the world, but her son's son, were likely to waste their lives in Riddle's pursuit of power, had been Lucius' final act of betrayal. She had given up all hope at that point, and Mondis had wondered often over the past week if that wasn't the right thing for him to do also. He looked at her, lying so still, hardly awake, and kissed her. She smiled weakly at him. It was to be their last ever kiss.

*

November 4th, 1981

Twilight. The sky outside was still far lighter than the thoughts Mondis was thinking as he stood beside the window watching nothing. Lucius had buried Giulia's body in the garden. He'd shown only one token of respect. She'd been buried beneath the bench where she'd so often sat and enjoyed the garden, and the view of the farmlands beyond. It was a part of the garden that Mondis could see from the window, though his son probably hadn't intended that. There had been no service, no priest, no mourners. How could there have been, when she'd been officially dead and buried for thirteen years now? There would be no headstone or other marker over her body, just a bench which would have no meaning to anyone else.

Mondis was seventy-one, and had met Giulia when he was twelve. They had been together for most of their lives, and his memories of her swirled in his mind like autumn leaves in a breeze. Friends, then a couple, then a family ... then betrayed by Lucius.

Nor were Mondis and Giulia alone in suffering at Lucius' hand. Mondis didn't even dare speculate how many of the recent deaths in Riddle's reign of terror could be laid at Lucius' door, but he was certain that it was far too many of them. He turned to look back into the room. It reminded him of the day Lucius had taken over completely, and he and Giulia had woken in this suite of rooms, to be told the news of their imprisonment in this prison of comfort. It reminded him ... of Giulia's dying days.

His sole consolation was one piece of news the new house-elf, Dobby, had brought him. After all these years, all these murders, all his attempts to seize power, all the work to make himself immortal, Riddle had vanished. He had been defeated by an infant, the Potters' son, younger even than Mondis' grandson Draco. Mondis wished he could meet the child and thank him, congratulate him, before he died. In his teaching career, Mondis had taught Defence Against the Dark Arts, both to Riddle and to Lucius, among so many others. He felt that both had betrayed him, and that the Potter boy was more his spiritual heir than either of them. Whoever was now taking care of the poor orphaned child would, of course, have more sense than to bring him anywhere near Malfoy Manor, so he could never see him.

Mondis sat, grieving, in his chair and thought again about those long-ago days, both at Hogwarts and after. He had time to think, and little else now to do while he waited for the end, for his own death.