The Ice Bowl | dramione

The Unsmiling Malfoy Witches

Malfoy family dinners were always tense, but this one carried a certain kind of venom. Draco's mum and aunt kept shooting each other dirty looks. Usually there were fake smiles plastered on both of their faces (Draco's father didn't like 'emotional' women), and they would eat dinner without looking at each other, with minimal interaction.

Draco felt a burning anger inside him, because of the side of his father that he wasn't allowed to have. The side that Xeno Lovegood got to see.

Oh, right. Xeno Lovegood was here too, so Draco's dad wasn't even attempting to reprimand his wife for not 'looking pretty' for his guest, because obviously, he wanted to be the sole object of his affection. Plus, how would that look in front of Xeno's wife and daughter?

In between all the constant glancing between Draco's father and his three romantic partners, short bursts of awkward conversation came about.

"I am...quite glad your wife volunteered to help our house-elves, Xenophilius." Draco's mum said in a stately voice. Draco fought the urge to roll his eyes. His parents, all the adults at the table, really, were acting like dumb teenagers caught back up in their Hogwarts drama. It was like an even more inconvenient version of Draco's my-hatred-against-muggleborns-is-uncalled-for-and-i-sh-ould-see-them-as-human dilemma.

Draco knew Xeno's daughter Luna from school, and she seemed very quiet, which seemed off-brand for what he'd seen of her at school. Then again, he didn't know her very well, just from his friends constantly teasing her. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat at Xeno's response.

"Well, you know Pandora. The woman needed to spend more time in the kitchen! You know, studies show that..."

Which instantly, of course, turned into a disgusting conversation between Draco and Luna's dads which was basically just wizard-justified sexism.

"Perhaps the children should go upstairs." said Aunt Bellatrix through gritted teeth. "After all, this conversation seems a bit adult for them."

"Well, I want Luna to learn good values early," said Xeno. He was about to continue, but Bellatrix shot him a piercing look that quickly shut him up.

"Very well then. Children, to Draco's room. Lucius clasped his hands together.

Draco and Luna sat on his bed, fidgeting and attempting to start conversation. Finally, Draco managed to jumpstart something that lasted longer than ten seconds.

"I hate my dad." He groaned.

"You're not the only one." Luna said, in a light voice. "And by that, I don't mean just me, I think a lot of people have bad relationships with their fathers. Most of my friends, for example, except Ginny. Sorry, I'm getting off track here. I tend to do that sometimes. My point is, my dad is...not that great. I love him, but he makes my mum do all the housework while he sits in the corner working on his magazine. Obviously, it's important to let the public know the truth, but still, you'd think he'd make some time for his family."

"Your dad edits The Quibbler, right?" Draco interjected.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Just, would you ever consider that the stories he publishes, they might not be true?"

He expected Luna to defend her father's honour, like he would whenever someone at school would whisper about him in the hallway upon seeing Draco. Instead, an expression of thought appeared on Luna's face.

"I never really think about things below the surface if I already have a truth put in my mind by someone else. I guess it's for the same reason I take things so literally all the time. My mum has this Muggle psychologist friend who thought I was on the spectrum, and I ended up getting diagnosed, and I guess it makes a lot of sense. And, honestly, those creatures Dad talked about did seem quite nonsensical...I believe you might be right."

Draco was surprised that he had managed to impact anyone's thoughts, let alone a girl he hadn't known anything about ten minutes ago. Luna smiled at him. And a few minutes of talking about their fathers led to Draco telling Luna what he'd heard their fathers saying.

Luna's eyes widened.

"I know you probably don't believe me, but-"

"Oh, no. I do believe you. I can tell, your eyes tell. I'm guessing you weren't meant to be there?"

"I don't think anyone was, actually."

The smile returned to Luna's face. "You know what, Draco Malfoy? I don't think you're as bad as everyone says you are."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you're nice. Clearly, you're a much better person without your friends and family around."

Draco smiled at her. For once, he felt as though he had a real friend. From there, the conversation just flowed naturally, and Draco felt more free then he'd ever been.

But he'd never had a good day in his life, and that streak wasn't about to end. A brief, split-second silence made both of them hear muffled shouting coming from the living room.

Draco and Luna raced downstairs to the living room. "What's going on?" Draco yelled, but they clearly hadn't heard him. All five adults had their wands drawn. He heard snippets of arguing.

"What do you want me to say, Pandora? Love has driven me crazy!"

"You cheated on me too!"

"You all deserve to die."

"Can we all-"

"Hold on. We deserve to die?"

It seemed that whoever said they all deserved to die-he thought it was Luna's mum?-had really struck a nerve with the rest of them.

The stakes and atmosphere in the room became higher and higher, until spells were shooting across the room.

"Stupefy!"

"Incendio!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Avada Kedavra? Who said that?

Luna screamed.

A thin line of green light struck Pandora Lovegood in the heart. Her light brown hair paled in colour, her skin went grey, and her wide eyes froze. The ice-blue clothes hanging off of her too-thin body were singed, and a tiny burn was clearly visible on a small, exposed part of her chest.

Draco looked on in horror as Luna ran to her mum's body. Pandora Lovegood was dead, and she had died in Malfoy Manor.