The Marriage of True Minds [drarry fanfic - not mine]

Chapter Three - The Width of a Decision

Chapter Three – The Width of a Decision

"Draco."

His mother's voice was so soft, so gentle, that Draco might have imagined he hadn't heard it, if he didn't know better. After all, he had felt the shift and tightening in the wards when she had come through the front door. The Manor's wards, if they could be said to have emotions, were most contented when all of the family was safely contained within them once more.

Of course, now some of them remained on alert, tingling in the back of Draco's consciousness like teeth stung with cold. They were on the alert because Potter was outside them, instead of where he belonged.

Draco smoothly calculated the time as he rose to his feet and bowed to his mother. He estimated that they had perhaps another hour before the marriage bond began to punish them for not living in the same house. Surely Potter should be back with his personal effects before then. How large could his home be in any case, compared to the Manor?

"What changed?"

Draco took a moment to drink in the sight of his mother, advancing to meet him with quick, smooth steps, her hand lifted as if she was resting it on the mane of a horse that walked beside her. This was the spouse for a Malfoy, glassy and beautiful and tranquil. Not to mention female. Draco had begun the marriage negotiations with the Greengrass family because he had seen something of his mother in their younger daughter. He only hoped that he would be as lucky as his father.

"What right did the Wizengamot forget to take away from Father when they made me head of the family?" he asked her, taking one of her hands between both of his and lifting it to his mouth as she came to a halt beside his bed.

"Oh," his mother said on an exhaled breath, turning her head as if she could see Lucius through the marble walls that separated them. "He would not?"

"He would," Draco said, with a sigh. "Because I would not give back the rights that the Wizengamot gave to me."

He watched his mother's face closely as he said that, but she only nodded, and a weight he hadn't known he bore fell away from him. "I did not think he would use it," Narcissa said, sliding her fingers up and down Draco's palm. "On the other hand, if he bound you in marriage to the Greengrass girl, it would be as well to pretend yielding and console her in private."

Draco shook his head. "That would have been giving me too much of what I wanted. He chose the most humiliating option possible, the one that he thought would have me groveling within two minutes."

His mother turned to him then, her eyebrows lifting in the perfect arch that Draco loved and had often tried to imitate.

Draco wanted a beat more of silence, then, surprised she wouldn't try to guess, replied, "Harry Potter."

For one moment, his mother pressed down on his hand as if she needed his support, and then she sighed and stepped away. "Of course he would think that the most humiliating option," she said. "It is not-there are far worse he could have chosen-but it is typical of the way your father thinks. Sometimes I think that the man I married is dead, and at other times, I know that he is simply hidden behind the mask of idiocy that he thinks serves his purposes best."

Draco stared at her, then said, "Potter, he is the worst choice. He has no respect for pure-blood traditions. He barely agreed to leave the facade of a convenient marriage intact, although this will affect his reputation as much as it will mine-more. He tried to attack Father, and me."

"He is not the worst for the same reason that I did not guess your father's choice immediately," his mother said, turning towards the door. "The Manor is still standing."