Stuck with Me [Harry Potter]

Chapter 18 - A Heart-to-Heart with Mom

Setting: Malfoy Manor, summer, 1998.

Draco slammed his bedroom door shut and sat on his bed. He yanked the tie out of his collar and threw it on the expensive rug. He ran the morning's events through his mind—

Draco stood in his father's study as his father stood by one of his many shelves crammed with old hardbound books.

"Father, just let me see her once," Draco pleaded. "It's been almost three months."

Lucius had his back to his son. "I'm not letting you frolic in those fields with that Lovegood girl. It's enough that you ran from the Dark Lord out of cowardice and stayed with her to begin with."

"Just once, Father. I'll come straight back."

Lucius turned to face him, his blue eyes fierce. "I've told you hundreds of times that I don't want you socializing with that girl, or her loon of a father. You know what he's done."

"Yes, and can't you just let that go?"

He smirked in disbelief. "Let it go, Draco? He almost ruined The Ministry with those articles of his, and he created a horrible reputation of us and our home. He's insane and so is his daughter. If you associate too much with them—"

"You don't know Luna," Draco shot at him hotly.

"And you do? After only a few days of living with her?"

"More than you do."

"I know enough about that family to know that I don't ever want any member of ours to even look at their faces."

Draco remained silent, his hands clenched into fists, and his heart hammering inside of him in irritation. Lucius walked over to his desk and pulled out a stack of enveloped letters with the Malfoy seal on them. Draco stared at them, shocked.

"You... those are the letters I sent to..."

"Yes," Lucius said. "I charmed all the owls so they could bring them back to me."

Draco stared at the letters, and his jaw clenched. "No wonder she hasn't written me... I can't believe it."

"Believe it, Draco."

Draco went to try and snatch the stack of about two-dozen letters in his father's hands, but Lucius was faster than Draco thought. He clicked his tongue. He pulled out his wand and said, "Incendio." The letters burst into flame.

"No!" Draco hollered and tried to snatch the stack of letters again but was unsuccessful. Draco watched the ashes fall to the wooden floor.

"I think it's about time you put your childish affections for this girl away and focus on being a man."

Draco dropped to the floor on his knees as Lucius walked towards the door but stopped when Draco asked bitterly, "You never want me to be happy, do you? Or ever wanted it?"

Lucius's voice was cool as ice. "I want you to be a member of this family by honorably keeping the bloodline. You can't accomplish that by being caught up in some nonsensical fantasy with a non-Slytherin loony girl. It would have been better if what the Dark Lord said about her was actually true—that she died."

Draco's fists clenched together as that memory vanished, and his heart pounded with frustration, sadness and bitter annoyance. His father didn't care. At all. He thought it would be better if Luna was dead! Hatred for the stupid Malfoy family traditions entered Draco's heart. She wasn't a Slytherin—so what? Shouldn't the feelings he had for her be enough?

Draco suddenly heard a knock on his door, and his mother poked her head in.

"Mother," Draco said, taking a breath to calm himself a little. "Come in."

She walked in and noticed Draco's horrid expression. "Draco? What happened?"

"Father. That's what happened. And the stupid family traditions."

She sat next to him on the bed and put a comforting hand on his arm. Her gaze was gentle. "Draco, you know how traditional you father is. He won't allow anything to stop what has been accustomed in our family for the past five hundred years."

"I've noticed," he spat, then looked up at the painting of a yellow, orange and pink sunset hanging on his wall opposite them, and he remembered the sunsets he watched at the Lovegood house.

"Draco," his mother said softly, "all of us know you want to see that girl again, but she's not..."

"A Slytherin?"

"Yes."

Draco sighed long and hard and felt tears sting his eyes. "Why should that matter?" he choked out, looking at his mother. "It may have just been with her a few days, but she made me feel things that I haven't felt before. She made me feel happy... the only time I actually felt genuinely happy was with her. The only time in my life!"

Narcissa rubbed her son's tense back.

"Mother, she made me see that I'm a good person... that there was good under all the evil that this family thrust upon me. She was kind and caring and patient with me—things that no one has dared to be before. She made me feel like I'm actually worth something."

Narcissa continued to rub Draco's back as he shook with the sobs that erupted out of him. "You are worth something, Draco. You are special. And if that girl made you think that about yourself then... she's special as well."

Draco sniffed and stared at his mother in disbelief, the blue of his eyes contrasting drastically with the bloodshot red. "Mother, you..."

She nodded. "Yes. I may have my own prejudices against the Lovegoods, but... I knew that girl did something to you. You are far more compassionate, happy, and you sleep better now. She helped you in more ways than you can imagine." She paused for a moment, then said, "As your mother, I want you to be happy and to improve. And if that means being with a girl who does not follow the family traditions, then so be it."

Draco couldn't believe his mother's words. He stared at her with wide eyes. Narcissa pulled her son into a warm hug, and he held onto her.

"Thank you, Mother," he said into her shoulder, and tears of joy started stinging his eyes.

She patted his back. "I don't want to stand in the way of your happiness any longer, Draco. You love this girl, so go on and be with her. I'll try to talk sense into your father."

Draco hugged his mother tighter, and he suddenly found a new rush of strength fill his body. Things would be alright. He hoped.