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Title: Tongue Tied

Contributors: dm_fugitive, lucius_malfoi

Edited by: Carla Lute

Posted: 2005-11-07

Game Date: August 1st

Disclaimer: No one at Levicorpus owns Harry Potter, the world or its characters. We just like to play in J.K. Rowling’s world.

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Lucius ran the brush through his hair one final time, before laying it upon what could only be described as a dresser and watched his reflection as it gently tied the silvery hair back into a ponytail. He smiled, feeling the silky texture run through his fingers and stood watching himself for a moment, appreciating what he saw. He turned and quickly surveyed the bedroom, wondering where Narcissa could have gotten to and appreciating the reasonable job she had done to make their chambers as acceptable as possible.

Aimless for the moment, Lucius exited his room and slowly began traversing the long hallways of the Riddle House. He had always been curious about the place, despite its rather drab appearance, and he reassured himself that it would at least be an interesting stay if not a particularly pleasant one. Several minutes passed, and Lucius found himself standing near the rooms which had been left to Severus' use and hesitated before moving on. He was turning to retrace his steps, when the door to Snape's rooms opened and Draco rushed from them, nearly colliding with his father in the process.

"Draco! What's the matter?" The look on Draco's face made Lucius' heart pound as he tried to resist the urge to pound down Severus' door and demand what it was that he had said (or done) to Draco which caused such a look of . . . well . . . horror. Instead he waited for his son's reply.

Draco opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His brain fumbled, but he did not dare discuss Horcruxes with his father. Nor the new theories about them he had bustling in his brain. He had to think about it, maybe talk to Snape some more...even so, he could normally lie pretty quickly. Nice half-lies, but he couldn't even grab on to one of those.

"Nothing," he muttered at last. "Nothing important anyway. I-I just remembered we're out of milk."

Lucius raised an eyebrow at Draco, not believing that his own son could ever lie so poorly. Not that he wanted his son to be lying to him, of course, but he had hoped that Draco would at least be able to weave a reasonable lie, should he choose to. Merlin, the year they had spent apart had certainly allowed more of what he had taught his son to wear off than he had thought.

"We're out of milk?" Lucius barely breathed the words, his hands balling, and he wished that he had brought his cane with him. Not that he would ever hit Draco with it, but surely there were some house-elves around who would benefit from a couple taps across the skull. "What did Snape say to you?"

Draco tried desperately to think of something... "Nothing," Draco managed. "Nothing important. But, I can feel my bones weakening already." Draco also felt his face growing red. What the wrong with him? He was exceptionally glad his father didn't have his cane on him. Not that he'd ever hit Draco...but Azkaban did things to people.

"If this was the kind of effort you put into killing Dumbledore, I now understand why Snape had to clean up after you." Lucius felt his lip curl as he spoke and let the comment slip out. "Now if you do not tell me what Severus has done to upset you, then you won't be pleased with the consequences."

Draco felt like he was going to cry. Instead he laughed breathily. "I was just joking," he said. "I...Bella, Aunt Bella, she's going to try to take back the Black family fortune, but the spell...it could backfire. And I wanted to tell mum, mother, before they tried it. Snape, he looked over the spell for me, the ingredients. Everything has to be really precise, but Aunt Bella can be so impatient." Draco felt himself calm as the lie slipped more comfortably out of his lips.

Lucius felt his anger slip away as Draco replaced what was supposed to be a lie with what could at least pass to be the truth. In fact, Lucius even wondered for a moment if Draco were telling the truth, his countenance having recovered quickly from his 'joke', and if it weren't for the occasional vocabulary stumble, Lucius would have been convinced. As it was, Lucius smiled, but only slightly at Draco and let him think that he had been successful. As annoying as it was, he would find out the truth from Severus later. After all, knowing Snape he had probably cast some kind of silencing charm on his son and Lucius knew that if it were anything less than this Draco would probably have been honest. Not that he approved of Severus (or anyone) casting charms on a Malfoy, but he would deal with that in time. He had even tried to curse Lucius once after a particularly incriminating conversation, which had been followed by a very near encounter between Severus and a particularly useful curse which shrunk . . . well, an important part of one's anatomy. Of course, Lucius would never admit that it was Narcissa who had noticed the curse in the first place.

"Alright, I'm glad that you are finding your work with Severus to be so useful." Lucius wasn't entirely certain as what he ought to say, so he simply nodded, "Goodnight," and strode back in the direction of his chambers.

Draco felt his heart rate return to normal as he watched his father leave. He wasn't sure what was wrong with him, but he did suddenly have a craving for a glass of chocolate milk. He took a deep breath and headed towards the kitchen.

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