Half-Dimension

42

It took perhaps another few days before Draco fully came back to himself. Lucius and Severus were in their Runes class when the information came via magic that Draco had woken, and gave them permission to leave in order to see him. Both wizards hastily packed their bags, before exiting the classroom, and making their way at not quite a run to the Medical bay. It had been several days now, since Draco's inheritence came into play. From what both Lucius and Severus could tell, it was a difficult inheritence, but then the Malfoy's always were. It also did not help that his came rather suddenly, leaving them next to no room to actually prepare anything. They should have kept a far closer eye on the boy, but they had not, and Lucius knew Abraxas was not pleased about it. Still, his father had not mentioned anything, though that did not mean that he would not. Lucius fully expected to be getting an earful when they returned home for the holidays. Particularly since he had involved Tom when he would bet Abraxas was not happy about that.

Abraxas knew of Tom, of course he did, Tom was only a few years older in age than Lucius and Severus, and he knew all of those that Lucius bothered to associate with. It was just, unlike most, Abraxas did not entirely know what to make of Tom, and Lucius was quite certain that his father was trying to accept that Severus was bonded to Lucius (as though that was not bad enough according to the patriarch) but also that Tom would now have a major claim to Draco, and it would seem Draco's own internal instincts preferred Tom to anyone else. It may be hard to deal with, particularly since Abraxas had not been fond over Lucius' befriending the man either, much less his continued correspondance. Not that his father would be able to stop it, no...and even Lucius was not going to be able to stop such things now, it was far too late. He had made his bed, quite literally, and it was up to him to set it and deal with the consequences that came with what he had unleashed.

"Are you alright, Lucius?" Severus questioned, dark eyes observant as ever. Lucius was normally fond of Severus' uncanny ability to pick up on what he was feeling, but right now it felt more a burden than anything. Frustrating, truly, as this was a question to which he did not want to answer. He was fine...of course he would have to be. It was lacking in decorum to not be, but there was just so much going on so quickly. He knew that he had a right to be wary of Tom being introduced to Draco, but he had thought that Tom would be able to help them, if he had chosen to do so of course. Now he would have to answer to his father for doing exactly that, and now that Draco was coherent...well Lucius was quite worried about what would happen. There was much that was going on, and Lucius was not sure he was going to be able to deal with all of it. Trying to stay afloat was difficult enough as it was, with Draco adding more complications than anything else...it was something he was nervous about. There was always nerves, though, and Lucius would simply have to bear through them as he did with everything else. "Nevermind, that was a stupid question, of course you are not." Severus sighed out, stopping, and pulling Lucius to a stop as well. Lucius whirled around, anger flitting through his eyes as he narrowed them into Severus' own black ones.

"Sev...."

"Don't start with that." Severus said, raising a hand and shaking his head. The half blood did not have the energy to fight Lucius on whether or not he should worry, or be concerned, or whatever else it was that was plaguing his mind at the moment. The reality was that he was concerned, and worried, and he had every right to be, whether Lucius liked it or not. Hee would be a piss poor bond if he did not worry over Lucius when he got into these random spells. The fact remained that Lucius oftentimes lost himself, and it was up to Severus to drag him back to the land of the living. To the present, not the past, or the future, or whatever and wherever it was that his mind went running to. "I know you are worried about how things will turn out but there is no use in it. We cannot change the past, and honestly, I am not sure we would want to anyways. We did what we could, and granted we may not have managed to do what we had planned but we tried, and there is some use to that."

"I know, it is just..." Severus shook his head, cutting Lucius off again, his voice softer than normal, knowing the other did not take well to being interrupted when he was speaking, and Severus had done it twice in a row now.

"The best we can do is try and help the Dark Lord with his plans, and we both know he has some sort of fondness for Draco. It is better than what it could be, and one way or another Draco would have met him. Or were you planning on defecting so soon?" Lucius' own eyes went wide at the scandalous words that Severus was stating so easily, and so close to the medical wing as well.

"Of course not!" He hissed out lowly, eyes flickering to either side, as though worried of being overheard. Severus rolled his own eyes, and continued to meet Lucius dead on.

"Then, Draco would have met the Dark Lord at any rate, and this still would have happened."

"He would not be tied..."

"He is not tied." Severus stated, his words cold and harsh, as they were intended to be. "He has every ability to refuse a courtship with the Dark Lord, and the Dark Lord has not even bothered to begin a courting ritual yet. That give us some time to figure some things out, and no doubt your father will try and stonewall such a courtship with every fiber of his being. There is literally no use in freaking out over things we cannot control. We should focus our efforts on more tangible things, such as getting Draco to agree to quit that stupid defense club he is a part of." the words were muttered lowly, but luicus could still here them, and he had to say he at least agreed with one thing.

He did not want Potter nor his sycophants anywhere close to Draco, not anytime soon, irregardless of what the other ended up presenting as.