𝑆𝐴𝑉𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝐷𝑅𝐴𝐶𝑂 𝑀𝐴𝐿𝐹𝑂𝑌

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟐 - 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭

╭────── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ──────╮

𝐃

Screams can often be heard in the Manor. Sometimes an elf is not careful enough and breaks a teacup or a cook burns the dinner. Especially when Father was around, the halls were silent but never quiet. But there were never more terrible screams than those that Bella let out. They were piercing to hear and you couldn't get the sound out of your head even after she had stopped for hours. Sometimes I wondered how the hell the Dark Lord liked those moans.

As always, I walked into my great-grandmother room, helped her stand from her bed and sit on the wheelchair.

With the little movement that was left in her, she looked up to me as I was pushing the wheelchair near the piano.

"How are you today, Draco?"

My wrist was in pain.

"I'm very good. And how are you, granny?"

"Same as yesterday... And the day before," she said with a voice tremulous from old age. "What do we have today?"

"We have Chopin," I said and sat on the stool.

But just then, another quiver came from beneath us. What fate put our rooms only right above the staircase that lead to Bellatrix's chamber?

"I never liked that whore..." Granny shook her head and put a papery hand on her cheek in embarrassment. "I knew it from the moment I met her that she would bring disgrace to this family. The Blacks was always a pure family but an insane one as well. All the inbreeding and the torturing... And Bellatrix was the worst of them. Listen to her now. Being a dark wizard's slut every five days or so. Oh, how the mighty have fallen..."

My great-grandmother was missing some teeth and one usually couldn't understand her perfectly. Now I realized that either she had moments of clarity, or that she could be comprehended only when she wanted to.

"But what can one say? The way Lucius went ahead and blew himself up, these deeds are the only thing keeping this family alive. Merlin knows, if not for what Bellatrix has between her legs, we would already be dead."

Granny seemed to have the faintest bit of shame for her words. I, who had often witnessed her being bitter but never so shameless, stared somewhere between amazed and excited.

"Bach it is, then," I ended up saying.

"I told him from the very first day," she continued. "I told my son; 'Don't you dare destroy Lucius'. But he did, like his father, my husband, did before him. Oh, if there was ever a curse on me, it was to suffer a life knowing I allowed this. If my son had some decency in him, Lucius would have never gone that way as well."

"We will get through, granny," I said reassuringly and laid my fingers on the keys, ready to put this conversation and the shouts below us to rest.

"Oh, we will. The Malfoys always do," she agreed with a certain nod. "But promise me this;" And with whatever will she had in her, she made a slow try to lean towards me. I leaned in, to relieve her of the struggle. "Don't destroy your son too, alright, Draco?" she said in a whisper.

"I don't think I will ever have children," I admitted.

"How so, Draco?" she asked.

"I think I would make a terrible father."

She seemed satisfied with this answer.

"You are the wisest of the bunch, Draco. It's me you take after; there is no other possible explanation for that."