Lost Image | dramione

33 | the ghosts of malfoy manor

"Draco, your mother tells me you were working with the Ministry briefly this summer."

"Ah... yes, the Goblin Liason Office."

His father nodded stiffly, a hint of approval in the gesture. "Good. It's nice to see you have been using your time wisely while I was away- from now on, however, we will be focusing on more important educational matters."

"Mother mentioned there were many aspects of the family funds that I'm still... unprepared to handle."

"Woefully unprepared," his father informed him, wiping at his mouth with a napkin. "Things I meant to begin teaching you in the summers when you were in school... If things were not so hectic these past few years, you would be sitting in a position of power at the Ministry right now. Or a position of power behind the Ministry. Either way, it is not just your education to blame... too much has happened to this family for us to just go back to the way we were. It will all take time, and patience."

"I'm aware," Draco said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. His father had been gone a year- the hardest year, right after the war. Didn't he realize how much his wife and son had done to try and repair their family name? No one needed his lectures. They were quite aware of where the Malfoys stood in society at the moment.

Then again, it was almost disturbing how quickly his father was capable of lecturing. In the few short hours since he had first seen the man, he had transformed. Certainly Lucius still looked malnourished, and there was a haunted look in his eyes that Draco expected would never really go away... but otherwise, he was almost his old self. It was amazing what a shower, a slew of potions, and whatever else his mother had given him could do.

Er, Draco didn't really want to think about that last one too much.

Draco expected dinner with his family to be as awkward and blaringly silent as their journey from the ministry that afternoon. No such luck.

"And as for the mudblood woman you were saddled with..."

Charming.

"...has everything been going smoothly? How much of the family funds has been allocated to her care?"

Like she was a new pet they had to buy food for.

"The minimum, Lucius," his mother replied. "She seems quite capable of living cheaply-"

"No doubt." Lucius nodded, shuffling around the food on his plate slightly. He didn't seem very hungry, despite his sunken form. "I wouldn't expect her to be used to spending gold. It doesn't matter either way- you've done well keeping her from any complaints, it seems. As long as she doesn't have anything to go blabbing to the press, then it can only look good for us."

That was how the situation started, wasn't it? That's exactly how Draco had felt at the beginning. How arrogant, to think she would expect them to take care of her. She could take care of herself. She never took their gold because she didn't need it.

His mother was nodding enthusiastically, and it was making Draco feel sick.

"I think we can honestly say Draco has done a lot in the past year for the sake of this family." She stared right at him, then, and he almost felt as if her eyes were burning a hole through his skull and right into his thoughts. "We couldn't hope for a better son."

He didn't know what to make of that. Were the words meant to remind him of his duty to the family, or where they meant to be taken honestly? "Thanks mother," he settled on, taking a bit of roast beef and staring down at the table.

"I've heard, Draco, that you had a bit of a disagreement with your mother regarding the only option to dissolve this unfortunate union- a child. I have to say I agree completely with your disgust on the matter. Your mother worries about you almost to a fault- she wanted you to escape that Granger girl at all costs, but there are some things a man just cannot do."