Verus

six

September 1991, Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England.

Tugging at the lapels of his coat, Lucius strode into the manor's kitchen. It had been a hellishly long morning and they hadn't even made it past noon yet, though he was rather thankful that he'd had the foresight to have taken the entire day off of work so that both he and Narcissa could see their son, Draco, off on the train to Hogwarts.

It was the boy's first year- his first time away from home, really- and the blond had spent many days putting preparations into place so that Draco felt more at ease upon parting from them, especially with the events the last year had thrown at their family. But, it seemed that in doing so, Lucius had failed to remember his wife's overall anxiety over losing their only child to the actual world.

The former Slytherin's mouth quirked upwards in, what most would describe as, a fond smile when he caught sight of Narcissa staring out of one of the kitchen's large open windows. It was the woman's most favoured place within the manor, the room let in so much light and was more often than not devoid of all beings.

Lucius crossed the tiled floor quietly but, even in doing so, his wife didn't startle when he placed a tender hand at the small of her back. No, instead the woman merely leaned further back into his embrace.

"I don't believe that any owls will be showing up just yet, my love." Lucius murmured as he pressed a sweet kiss to her temple.

Narcissa simply smirked and side eyed him in return as she looped her delicate fingers around the hand that had come to rest at her waist. "I wouldn't be too sure of that, Draco is your son after all. He has a tendency for the dramatics and I am quite certain that he'll be wanting to tell us all about this big adventure of his."

Lucius narrowed his eyes at her quip but he couldn't hide the obvious love he held for the woman.

The witch smiled at him in amusement before she turned back to watching the window. The skies outside were bright and blue, blessed with no clouds in sight. The orchard sat to the far right, the branches of their famous Hawthorn trees stretched upwards and out, leaves evergreen. A few peacocks roamed the outskirts of the grounds, they always tended to favour the open fields rather than the budding garden filled with all of Narcissa's favourite plants. Lucius hummed pleasantly to himself.

"Ooh! My apologies. Am I interrupting something?" Came a familiar mirth-filled voice.

Lucius had to keep from snarling at the smirking imp that was now stood in their kitchen's entryway as he glared at him from over his shoulder. The other man paid it no heed, simply strolled in further upon knowing that he now held their attention and snickered joyfully to himself as he slid on over to the island. "Winky!" He sung merrily.

Lucius sighed quietly when Narcissa pulled away from his hold, just as the house-elf in question popped into the room. She was a rather dainty looking thing, with enormous brown eyes and a tomato shaped nose, Winky adjusted the mint coloured bonnet she wore religiously atop her head as she gazed up at her young master.

"You calls, Mr Barty?"

Bartemius, Lucius had come to quickly realise, had rather a soft spot for the small elf, he spent many of his nights hauled up in the manor with only her to keep him company and, funnily enough, together they seemed to share a lot of laughter. It was strange for him, to see a wizard so close with their servant but Lucius guessed that he couldn't really blame the younger man for wanting some sort of stability in his life, not after everything Crouch's wretched father had put him through during the years since the first war. The very thought had his upper lip curling.

It was just as Bartemius had begun to make his way through a long list of items he somehow required that Rabastan entered, his expression showed no signs of his usual humour and the man simply nodded curtly at them in greeting, which only meant one thing.