Narcissa slumped down on 'her' sofa in one of the smaller living rooms, one of many, sighing.
"Mother? Wha' wrong?" Little Draco pulled at her skirts, wrinkling his nose as he caught sight of the small sleeping infant on the other sofa.
"Who' da?"
Narcissa absentmindedly patted her child on the head, sighing yet again.
"Lucius..."
"Narcissa, please. I can't think of anything better to - prove my, ahem, 'good intentions' to Dumbledore's Merry Men..."
Especially if he was going to use the 'Just an Imperio'd pawn here, Sir and Madam!' defense, that is. The problem was, Narcissa thought, there was possibly more truth to that then she wanted to think about, frankly - she was quite sure that somebody had been using Imperio on her husband, at least sometimes, and -
Oh, well. The Dark Lord was gone, it seemed, thought it was much too early to see if it was 'for good', of course, and -
And she was - glad. Though she'd never say that, of course...
"Where are we going to put him, anyway?" Lucius muttered.
The sight of his son and the brat together, in the same room, was somewhat disturbing - and Lucius had just now figured out why.
The brat - James - looked more like himself then Draco ever had. The hair, the facial structures...
Well, it wasn't Draco's fault he looked like a Black bleached blonde and grey-eyed, but...
Argh. No wonder his poor Narcissa looked so frazzled.
"Oh, that." Narcissa absentmindly waved her hand.
"Here! Dobby!"
The House-elf arrived on scene with a pop. Lucius grimaced. Why did that particular House-elf always have to be so - showy?
"Dobby, this is - " Narcissa looked at her husband, then. It was his duty to formerly declare such things as taking in fosterling and such to the House-elves, after all.
Lucius nodded. "Dobby, this is James Orion Malfoy, who we have taken as fosterling for the time being. You will take care of him in the appropriate fashion."
"Yes, Master." The House-elf murmured, subservient as usual, but there was something about the tone...
Lucius sighed. He'd think that particular House-elf actually disliked him, and Narcissa too for that matter, if he didn't know better.
He nodded curtly to the thing, which took the baby into it's gnarled arms and made grumbly noises. What was that supposed to be, House-elf baby talk?
"Where should I keep th' baby, Master? ...Mistress?"
Narcissa sighed, then.
"Just keep him in your rooms for the time being, Dobby. - You are dismissed."
And Dobby the House-elf, one of many in the Malfoy estate, took the baby back to it's sleeping room.
Which happened to be one of the cupboards under the many stairways.
Well, well, well. It had been a while since he'd been told to take care of a child...
Almost a century, in fact.
- Not that he'd forgotten how, though! Dobby put the baby on a bed of old towels, and went to sleep himself.
Tomorrow, he'd make the boy a real cot.
And someplace not so far away at all, a purple-haired being was laughing and laughing and laughing...
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:03)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.