Bloodlines || A Draco Malfoy Romance Fanfiction

Bonding - 133

Draco

Now that everything was out about the defensor link, William Cytheria was an open book. We talked for much longer than we intended as William answered my questions about his connection with Father and shared amusing stories of the various antics they got into.

"My first experience with my abilities was third year. This Hufflepuff girl, whose strengths were not in potions, had one of hers explode. Your father was brewing his potion in the row behind her and got a decent burn on his hands trying to shield his face.  The two of us were in the midst of a lengthy argument, so that day I'd sat on the other side of the classroom. Once we'd realized how my abilities presented themselves, we tended to sit close to each other for remaining lessons..."

"There was one time your father dislocated his shoulder playing quidditch. I tossed myself off my broom to make it look like an accident so my own injury didn't seem spontaneous..."

"Lucius would never have let on, but he was a nervous wreck when he proposed to Narcissa. Don't tell him ever tell him I said that, though. He'd probably wring my neck...

"How does your relationship work, exactly," I asked at one point. "If I may speak frankly, Father's not typically the type to be... equals with somebody."

He chuckled, nodding in agreement. "He doesn't, does he?  The truth is I can be just as stubborn as Lucius when it suits me. While it's true I have to keep your father from harm, there have been cases where defensors have been driven to... Abandon their charge. He's lived with me protecting him for decades, and he depends on our continued relationship as much as I do his survival. It creates a bit of a symbiosis between us." He got up and took a few steps to his liquor cabinet, pulling a glass out and pouring himself some brandy from a crystal decanter.

"That's why we try to keep many of our affairs separate," he continued. He took a butterbeer out of the cabinet, offering it to me. I nodded, and he opened it and charmed it to be cold before handing it to me. Then he returned to his seat with his drink. "I know it's obvious that we handle certain aspects of our lives differently. So at some point, without even discussing it, I think we hit a sort of compromise with each other. I don't critique how your father runs his house, and he does the same with mine. Things get a bit difficult when it comes to you and Aphrodite, though." 

My brow lifted curiously. "Like when to tell me about the defensor vow?"

His mouth quipped on one side in amusement. "Mostly about when to tell you. At first, I settled with reminding myself, 'He's Lucius's son. Let him do things as he sees fit.'" He stared off, index finger circling the rim of his glass. "Then you kissed my daughter," he said pointedly, looking at me with a matching expression.

I was suddenly nervous and swallowed hard. William Cytheria was very intimidating when he chose to be. But his mouth quirked up yet again, and I let quietly let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding and took a sip of my drink. "I kept trying to convince him we were in a race against time. We were working against strong magic, generations and decades in the making. But he certainly tried. And you nearly outsmarted him digging into the families' defensor records."

A short, proud chuckle came out of me. "Now that you mention it, I was far closer to the truth than he let on, wasn't I?"

William laughed and nodded. "He'd never admit it himself, but yes."

At that point, Aunt Bellatrix burst into the study, "Where is Narcissa?" She demanded of my father.

Sharply, William's mood changed. With his back turned, he rolled his eyes. "She went shopping with Aphrodite," he said coldly.

"Their packages are in the foyer," she spat back. "These lazy house elves have yet to take them to their rooms, and everyone else in the house is saying that you signed off on them almost an hour ago."

She wasn't wrong. We stopped and took a break from our conversation for him to do so. I followed him to the manor's entrance and watched as he signed for the packages. I found it amusing that, upon seeing the bill, he just smiled and joked that Aphry was going to bleed him dry. He then gave the delivery assistant a nice tip before we returned to his study.

"Perhaps they stayed out for lunch, Bellatrix," William said with a bored tone, still facing away from her. "There's also more than one store in Place Cachée."

Bellatrix did not appear convinced. "Or she went to see him like I explicitly told her not to."

I watched the hand holding William's brandy tighten slightly around the glass. He then set the glass on the table beside him, standing and finally turning toward Bellatrix. "Do not do anything rash, Bellatrix."

"I knew it!" she screeched, before heading out the study's door just as urgently as she came in.

William rushed after her. As did I, purely because I'm nosey.

"Bellatrix, you mustn't," he protested. "He lives in a muggle town. You'd be jeopardizing Narcissa and Aphrodite if you just apparated there."

My nosiness turned to concern. Where exactly would my mother and girlfriend be going that's full of filthy muggles?

"Well, I'm going whether she likes it or not. We were explicitly instructed not to speak of this."

"Please be reasonable, Bellatrix."

My aunt laughed. "Begging only makes you look weak."

They walked into the foyer, me close behind them. She turned around to him and lifted her chin in the air proudly. "Now, you can either tell me a safe place to apparate, since I know you've been to visit him. Or else hold some of the blame for jeopardizing them."

William Cytheria clenched his jaw. Finally, he sighed and planted his hands on his hips.  "There's a riverbank in Cokeworth. Hardly anyone strays over there."

Without another word, she gave a little "hmmph," then opened the door to the manor and left.

A long exhale left him, and he muttered something along the lines of, "Narcissa is going to have my head when she gets back." Then turned to the pink boxes that towered to the side. "Suppose we should take these to their rooms."

I started to protest. "Shouldn't the elves--"

"We've been cooped up in my study all day. The time on our feet will do us some good," he said, trying to sound pleasant and producing a smile that didn't exactly hide the stress in his eyes. 

He nodded to the packages again. "Come on. You take your mother's, and I'll take Aphrodite's. After that, you should probably get to your research. If Aphrodite is anything like her mother, she would not be pleased that she'd given you a task and you hadn't completed it after an entire day."