from Time to Time | Lucius Malfoy

The lost mother

1961, January 15th

The impressions almost killed me! Loud babble of voices and countless smells of herbs, leather, parchment and sweets. I turned in circles, I never wanted to leave that place again! It was  simply wonderful. I strolled through the streets, hopped from shop to shop and bought an accessory or maybe two. Scarves, perfume, a little notebook, gloves. I was so taken by a candy store that I spent almost an hour looking at the sweet temptations. In the end I bought a few candies which didn't exist anymore in my time. I saw him when I walked out of the shop. A little blond boy, no more than 7 or 8 years old. He sat on the wooden bench in front of the candy store and cried bitterly.

I felt so incredibly sorry for the child, he must have lost his parents in the crowd. I sat down next to him without saying a word and held my bag of goodies right in front of his nose. He sniffled, looked at the bag and took a candy out of the packet and put it in his mouth, still crying bitterly.

The boy was dressed expensively, you could see that at first sight. He wore a fur hat and a black fur-trimmed wool coat including a cashmere scarf and leather gloves. His boots were also made of dragon leather and his trousers looked expensive to me too so he really couldn't be an orphan.

His almost white blond hair peeked out from under his hat, his rosy cheeks were soaked but he still looked a bit like a cute little doll. His steel grey eyes were now red and swollen. He must have been sitting here crying for quite a long time.

"Today is a far too beautiful day to cry, don't you think so?" I said, my gaze fixed on the people passing by. "I lost my mother...", came quietly from the seat next to me. Mmm, I thought so... I could help him find his mother, it wouldn't be a big deal, would it? She couldn't be too far, I thought to myself as a voice suddenly snapped me back into reality. "Lucius! How dare you just run away like that! Did you finally lose your mind now! Just wait until we're back home, I'm sick of your behavior!"

A tall, quite handsome looking man approached us with hasty steps. His voice thundered through the streets, the passers-by gave way to the extravagantly dressed man holding a walking stick in his left hand. That must be mister papa then, I thought to myself. The man was in his 40s, his hair was white-blond just like the boy's, his steel-grey eyes literally flashed with anger and he stopped in front of us with a jerk.

"Sir, is that your son?" I asked the man in an angelic voice and looked at him with big doe eyes. The stitch actually always pulled, no matter what century I was in. The man raised one of his light eyebrows, turned his gaze at me and spoke in a rough, deep voice: "No, yell at children of strangers when I feel like it. Of course he's my son, what do you think?" I gave the man a sweet smile and continued: "He lost his mother..." - "Is that so? Guess what! I know that myself, how dare you even speaking of my late wife!", he cut me off. By Merlin, that was the biggest faux pas I've ever made... I'm not getting out of this any time soon...

How embarrassing's that? The boy said he'd lost his mother... And of course I thought mommy was still shopping for hats and gloves. Oh dear, the whole situation was more than uncomfortable for me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the boy rubbing his eyes and sniffling, pressing his lips together and trying to pull himself together.

"Sir, I...uhm...I didn't know that, your son said he lost his mother, I thought she was in one of the shops..." I started to explain myself, but the man only scoffed, scrunched nose and lifted his head so that he could look down at me disparagingly."It's been in all newspapers around the country, the name Malfoy should be well known to you? Abraxas. Abraxas Malfoy, my name. This crying baby over there would be my son Lucius then.", he interrupted me again.

No, I didn't know the name Malfoy at all. I've never heard it before. "Sir, it's an honor. My name is Caitriona Sterling. I'm from abroad, just on a vacation, a little stopover here in London, you know? I'm sorry you lost your wife and your son lost his mother, I really just wanted to help." I blurted out.

The boy next to me sobbed bitterly again. "Lucius, be a man now! Pull yourself together, a Malfoy doesn't cry! You're not a little baby anymore.", the man snapped at the boy. Not a little baby anymore? Of course he was! He was a little kid who had just lost his mother. How could this horrible man be so cruel! That was his son he was making a mess of. And all that just because he was crying. Where did I end up here again...

Mister Malfoy turned back to me and spoke more calmly and matter-of-factly, "I don't need pity from you or anyone. What I need is a nanny, the boy is driving me insane! Cries all the time, daydreams and gets lost whenever wer'e in the city. It can't go on like this for very much longer." Without thinking, I stood up. "Is that an offer? I'd be happy to accept it."

At that very moment I wasn't even aware of what I was doing. I should be gone in a few hours! How did I come up with that stupid idea of ​​imposing myself as a nanny... I guess I just took the job from a trained governess. But I didn't care at all. He was such a sweet little kid... and I just wanted to help, nothing else!

"Do you have the appropriate training?" said the man as he looked me over. "Sir, my family is from Ireland, I was in Beauxbatons and then I traveled a lot, worked in various houses as a governess, I'm very good with kids." I lied coldly to his face. And it drove me deeper and deeper into troll shit. He just nodded and said I could start right away. His time is limited, he can't keep chasing after the boy and it doesn't make a good picture at all when a tearful boy is constantly hanging on his hand.

"5 galleons a month, board and lodging free of course. Where do you have your luggage?" He looked at me and waited for an answer. "Agreed. No luggage." He just nodded and gestured for me to follow him. 5 galleons were a bottomless cheek! Thank Merlin I didn't have to rely on the money and I would probably be leaving in a few hours anyway. But curiosity was just too great... This mister Malfoy seemed to be incredibly rich and I just wanted to find out how incredibly rich people lived in the 60s. I gave the boy a smile and held out my hand which he immediately took and tried to smile as well. Between all the tears he barely succeeded.