Hey, Soul Sister [Lucius/Narcissa]

Chapter Two

Lucius stared at the latest issue of The Daily Prophet without seeing a word on the pages. He found himself distracted by the shameless flirting transpiring on the sofa across from him between Walden Macnair and Lenore Brown, which Augustus Rookwood was attempting to put a stop to by pelting the two periodically with Bertie Bott's beans from the chair next to Lucius.

"I'm going to strangle the lot of you if you don't knock it off." Lucius gave in at last and folded the newspaper, setting it on the table beside him as he watched Walden play with Lenore's long, red hair. It was somewhat jarring to watch Walden so completely taken with one person; he'd been one of Lucius's closest friends since their first year at Hogwarts, and in that time, he'd burned through more relationships than Lucius had realized there were women in the castle. Walden had never been one to commit to someone for longer than a month, and even that was optimistic. That had changed, though, with the appearance of a mark in the shape of a fox on the back of Walden's right hand. Lucius caught sight of it as Walden deftly deflected a bean that had been on a collision course with Lenore's face.

"Why all of us?" Walden asked Lucius before shooting a glare in Augustus's direction. "He's the one who's being an arse."

"And you two are being sickening," said Augustus, inspecting the bean he'd plucked from the box, apparently deciding it wasn't worth wasting as ammunition, and eating it.

"I have to agree with that." Lucius sighed. "Just remember, Rookwood, you're picking the beans up eventually. It's hard enough to persuade Father to let you come over when you aren't making a mess of the lounge."

"Your mother seems to like us, at least," said Lenore. "She complimented my dress, earlier."

"You do look lovely in it," said Walden.

Augustus wretched. "Give it a rest, Macnair."

"Mother likes you, at least," said Lucius to Lenore, ignoring the others to the best of his ability. "You didn't set her curtains on fire the last time you were over." He shot a pointed look at Walden, who shrugged.

"I apologized thoroughly and offered to mend them."

"And the last time you tried to mend anything, I ended up in the Hospital Wing," said Lucius, rolling his eyes. "I should've settled for torn robes. Skele-Gro sucks, you know."

Lenore watched Walden with wide eyes. "How do you mess up that badly?"

"We've been asking him that for years," said Augustus, tossing a bean squarely into Walden's forehead.

"Why're you ganging up on me?" Walden protested. "I thought we were supposed to gang up on whoever was dumb enough to host us."

"I can just as easily toss you out," said Lucius with a shrug.

"You'd miss us."

"Try me, Walden." Still, Lucius couldn't completely fight off a smile. Yes, his friends were nearly always infuriating, but they were also entertaining. He couldn't imagine handling school without them.

"Lucius."

Closing his eyes, Lucius sighed. He'd hoped his friends could manage not to draw the attention of his father, but he'd known that was about as likely as them staying out of trouble altogether. He pushed himself to his feet and turned to find Abraxas standing in the lounge's doorway, his cloak draped over his arm.

"Yes, Father?" asked Lucius, starting toward the elder Malfoy cautiously. Abraxas beckoned his son into the corridor, and Lucius followed, rolling his shoulders back and bracing himself for the reprimand he was certain was soon to come.